Neighborhood Advance Tax (NAT)

Statewide (Florida), FL 2016--2021 Tax Preparation Firms

IRS-Criminal-Investigation DOJ Tax Fraud False Returns Falsified Deductions Organized Fraud Scheme

Penalty

$12 million

Outcome

Franklin Carter Jr. and Jonathan Carrillo, co-owners of Neighborhood Advance Tax (NAT) with a dozen Florida offices, were sentenced in August 2025 to 84 and 121 months in federal prison respectively and $12+ million each in restitution for orchestrating a multi-location tax fraud scheme from 2016–2020 that fabricated client deductions to inflate refunds and trained employees to replicate the fraud methods — the scheme continuing under successor brands Taxmates and Smart Tax & Finance.

Details

Neighborhood Advance Tax (NAT) / Carter & Carrillo — $12 Million Multi-Location Florida Tax Fraud (2025)

Outcome: Franklin Carter Jr. and Jonathan Carrillo, co-owners of Neighborhood Advance Tax (NAT), which operated a dozen offices across Florida, were sentenced August 28, 2025 to 84 months and 121 months in federal prison respectively, with $12.54 million and $12.17 million in restitution ordered, for orchestrating a multi-location fraudulent tax return preparation scheme from 2016 through 2020 that combined fabricated client deductions with formal employee training sessions teaching the fraud methods.

Neighborhood Advance Tax (NAT) operated a network of approximately 12 tax preparation offices across Florida under the co-ownership of Franklin Carter Jr. and Jonathan Carrillo. From 2016 through 2020, Carter and Carrillo directed a systematic scheme to fraudulently inflate client tax refunds by fabricating deductions on returns — a practice that was not confined to a few bad actors but was institutionalized through periodic training sessions at which Carter, Carrillo, and co-conspirators taught other NAT employees how to prepare fraudulent returns. This organized approach to fraud dissemination allowed the scheme to operate at scale across all 12 Florida locations.

The combined IRS losses from the Carter/Carrillo operations exceeded $12 million across the scheme period. Co-conspirator Diandre T. Mentor, who managed NAT's Orlando location, was separately sentenced to 36 months for $3,090,077 in losses connected to his NAT operations. Two additional co-conspirators, Emmanuel Almonor and Adon Hemley, received sentences of 57 months and 46 months respectively.

The scheme demonstrated the pattern of serial fraud recidivism common in the tax preparation industry: after NAT's operations came under scrutiny, Carter and Carrillo launched a successor brand called Taxmates in 2021, while Mentor co-founded Smart Tax & Finance in 2020 — attempting to continue the same fraudulent practices under new business names.

Primary Source: IRS Criminal Investigation — Florida Men Sentenced for Scheme to Prepare False Tax Returns

How Crucible Prevents This

Crucible's instinct-observer hook would detect statistically anomalous deduction rates across multiple branch locations under the same owner/brand. The pre-tool-check hook would require documented source verification before any itemized deduction could be finalized across the franchise network. The quality-gate would flag formal employee "training" materials that describe deduction inflation techniques — the training program that was a core component of this scheme.

Source: IRS Criminal Investigation — Florida Men Sentenced for Scheme to Prepare False Tax Returns

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