Andrew Zepeda Hansack of Riverside was sentenced to six years and $3.37 million in restitution June 26, after pleading guilty to two counts of falsifying a tax return.
Hansack, through his company, AJ Loyal Income Tax Service on Jurupa Avenue and Magnolia Avenue, filed 2,533 falsified tax returns from 2015 to 2019 that claimed false deductions, prosecutors claimed.
After pleading guilty to the counts and being directed not to work in tax preparation, Hansack continued to file 1,625 tax returns, according to documents filed by both his attorney and prosecutors.
These filings were also fraudulent, and would result in approximately $720,000 in lost tax revenue, prosecutors said. Eight of his clients in 2023 said the filings were filed without their knowledge of the fraud when interviewed by an IRS agent. He managed to make these filings by using his girlfriend’s identification number, prosecutors stated.
Hansack’s second letter to the court says that he continued the fraud out of concern for his mother and two step-sons that he had been raising as a single father.
“There is no justification or excuse for this. I can offer only that I continue to have financial struggle to make ends meet and to support my two sons, mother, and family,” his letter says.
“I was trying to gather funds for my family knowing that I would be going into custody in this case. I do not want my kids to become homeless, as we have in the past, and wanted to leave something behind for the person that is going to watch my kids in my absence,” he continued.
Some of the documents said his clients, who did not own a house, were paying mortgage interest. Others claimed false medical expenses, sales tax and gifts.
The plea agreement says he spent the money on a 2018 Mercedes Benz, a 2017 Mercedes Benz, a 2015 Mercedes Benz and a 2016 Maserati.
California Central District Judge Stephen Wilson said the crimes were “one of the most serious offenses I’ve encountered while on the bench,” according to the Department of Justice.
The case and the plea deal were both filed Jan. 18.
The six-year sentence was nine months more than the 63-month sentence prosecutors asked for, and was the maximum sentence for the crimes. Hansack also owned a furniture store in Riverside.
Case information
Case No. 2:23-cr-00021
U.S. Attorney Jeff Mitchell brought the case.
Alan Eisner of Encino’s Eisner Gorin LLP represented Hansack.
Read the information here.
Read the plea deal here.
Read Hansack’s letter to the court here.
