NEWS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 23, 2001 District Tax Business Employees Charged With Tax Fraud (WASHINGTON, DC) Three employees of Remer Tax Service, a District tax preparation business located at 1735 Columbia Road, NW, have been charged with tax fraud after an investigation by the DC Office of Tax and Revenue (OTR). Jeffrey Remer, Mitchell Remer and Robin Kough appeared in Superior Court on October 19, and were charged with preparing numerous false tax returns for their clients. The investigation found that tax returns contained false and inflated itemized deductions, which caused substantially larger refunds to be issued to their clients. This, in effect, caused a loss of revenue to the District. Mitchell Remer pled guilty and was fined $500, plus $100 in court costs, and ordered to serve one-year probation. Jeffrey Remer and Robin Kough both pled not guilty and a status hearing has been scheduled for Jan. 18, 2002. If convicted, each individual faces possible imprisonment, criminal fines and possible civil penalties. "We are aggressively pursuing all cases of tax evasion, fraud or misrepresentation," said Herbert J. Huff, Deputy Chief Financial Officer. "We are particularly concerned when members of the practitioner community willfully prepare fraudulent returns for their clients. We are obligated to protect the District's revenue and to ensure that everyone pays his or her fair share." Anyone with information regarding tax fraud is encouraged to call the toll-free tax fraud hotline at (800) 380-3495.