Board of Assessors chair's position in question
Date: 12/4/2012
By Chris Maza
chrism@thereminder.comLONGMEADOW — Longmeadow Board of Assessors Chair Jonathan Fein has agreed to enter a guilty plea at his Dec. 20 plea hearing after federal prosecutors charged him with 29 counts of tax fraud.
U.S. Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz and William Offord, special agent in charge of the Internal Revenue Service's Criminal Investigation in Boston Field Division, first announced the agreement on Nov. 20.
Fein, the president of JLF Tax Group Inc., which operates as American Tax or American Tax Service with offices in Springfield and Greenfield, was charged by Ortiz's office with preparing Internal Revenue Service (IRS) 1040 individual income tax return forms with fraudulent information in order to garner his customers larger tax refunds so he could receive tax preparation fees from the illegally obtained refund monies.
Fein continued the practice, according to a press release from Ortiz's office, from Jan. 30, 2007 through April 11.
The U.S. Attorney's Office alleged that Fein took advantage of customers, "most of whom were unfamiliar with the Internal Revenue laws and relied upon Fein to prepare correct, accurate, and complete returns," the press release stated.
Fein also allegedly lied in order to conceal the fraud when questioned by federal agents investigating the case on Nov. 19, 2010, stating that he did not fraudulently prepare any tax returns.
Christina DiIorio-Sterling told
Reminder Publications that while Fein agreed to plea guilty to the charges, no agreement on sentence recommendation was reached.
"The U.S. Attorney's Office did agree to recommend sentencing within the established guidelines, but no concrete agreement on a sentence recommendation has been reached," she said.
According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Fein, who also serves at treasurer for the Longmeadow Republican Town Committee, could spend five years in prison for each count. That would be followed by a maximum of three years of supervised release and a $250,000 fine.
"The U.S. Attorney's Office will be seeking incarceration within those guidelines," DiIorio-Sterling said.
In addition to whatever sentence is handed down, Fein will be responsible for paying $138,474 in restitution to the IRS, as well as $29,909 to the Massachusetts Department of Revenue.
Principal Assessor Robert Leclair said that he has not been privy to any conversations regarding Fein's future with the Board of Assessors.
"He is the chair of our board, which is an appointed position by our Select Board," he said. "There has been no communication from the Select Board or the [Acting] Town Manager [Barry Del Castilho] about what the Town Charter says we can do under these circumstances. I don't know what the ramifications are."
Del Castilho said that he did not believe the Town Charter outlines any recourse in such matters.
"I don't know all of the details of this, but I did take a look quickly at the Charter and didn't see anything in the Charter pertaining to this," he said.
Leclair said that he believed "the general discussion right now is that he's innocent until sentenced."
He added, "I think at this point, it's a personal decision on [Fein's] part."
Should Fein be removed from his position or opt to resign, the Board of Assessors could still operate normally, Leclair added.
"As long as we have two out of the three, we can continue our work as a board," he said.
Messages left for Fein and Select Board Chair Paul Santaniello were not returned as of press time.
