TAX NEWS - 2010

Federal Agents Interview Tax Service Clients

Federal agents have reportedly spent part of the past week questioning some former clients of a tax service raided by FBI and IRS back in March.

Agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service served a federal search warrant March at the Preyear's Tax & Check Cashing, LLC on Ridgely Street in Atmore, as well as locations of the business in Monroeville and Thomasville, Alabama, and the Monroeville home of Alice Preyear Mobley. According to the Alabama Secretary of State's Office, Mobley is the owner of the tax and check cashing business.

During the last week, federal agents have interviewed some of the tax service's former clients across the area. The FBI nor the IRS would publicly comment, saying that the investigation is ongoing.

Recently unsealed federal court documents show that FBI and IRS agents seized over $300,000, boxes of tax documents, computers, vehicles and even a stuffed teddy bear when they raided the three locations of a tax and check cashing business and the home of the business owners.

The exact reason the U.S. government sought the search warrants is still secret; a federal judge sealed the search warrant applications and reasons for obtaining them. But other unsealed documents in the case reveal that the government was seeking "business, bank and accounting records, documents and proceeds related to fraud against the government, tax fraud and money laundering, U.S. currency, property that constitutes evidence of the commission of a criminal offense and contraband, fruits of a crime or other things criminally possessed therein."

Alice Preyear Mobley, Lloyd Preyear and Preyear Tax and Check Cashing Services, LLC have requested that the government return property from the home and business locations in Atmore and Monroeville. The defendants claim that the search warrants were missing a necessary attachment in order to be valid.

Items seized during the execution of the search warrants included $263,000 in $100 bills from the defendants' house, many boxes of tax records and other documents and even a "stuffed white bear".

At the time of the search, spokesperson for both the IRS and the FBI would only confirm that they executed the search warrants, with an IRS spokesperson saying "we were there on official business". Otherwise, the government has not provided any public information about the search warrants.