Report: Alleged Fake Tax Preparer Scored Six Coronavirus Bailout Loans Worth over $1 Million

An employee at a money changer counts USD 100 bills in Manila on October 25, 2012. AFP PHO
AFP PHOTO/NOEL CELIS

A judge has barred an Arizona man from calling himself a certified public accountant (CPA) after he allegedly secured over $1 million in federal loans while posing as a licensed CPA.

James Polzin secured at least six coronavirus bailout loans from the federal government through the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), CNN reported Friday.

Although he is not licensed or authorized to prepare people’s taxes, Polzin reportedly secured about $1.2 million for tax firms and other businesses between April and June of 2020, the article continued:

Under SBA rules, individual businesses were only supposed to receive one PPP loan during the first phase of the program. The agency told CNN that while there were no measures to screen out fraud during the approval process for the first draw because of how quickly the money needed to be distributed, the agency has implemented more than 80 fraud checks this time around.

Polzin, who has allegedly gone by different first names, applied for some of the loans using similar business names and addresses and tried to get funding from various banks.

“One of his companies, which was also specifically cited by an Arizona judge as operating unlawfully months earlier, received multiple loans despite using the exact same name on the applications. This company, Transparen CPAs, is now listed as inactive in state business filings,” the article read.

Reviewers on taxbuzz.com appeared to accuse Polzin of being a “fake.”

“He stole from me. He never filed my taxes. He overcharged my credit card by 5,000. He had his own credit card machine.. He ran my card three times for a total of 5k. He scammed me,” one person wrote.

Upon learning Polzin was illegally calling himself a CPA, the Arizona State Board of Accountancy had a judge issue a permanent injunction in January 2020 banning him from using titles indicating he or his firms were authorized to work as CPAs.

In September, the Justice Department charged dozens of individuals with attempting to defraud hundreds of millions of dollars from the government program set up to help small businesses during the coronavirus pandemic, according to UPI.

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