Attorney General J. Joseph Curran, Jr. and Comptroller William Donald Schaefer jointly announced today the filing of criminal charges against Joanne Adams, a Lexington Park tax return preparer, for preparing scores of false State income tax returns. Adams, 58, is charged in a two count Criminal Information with preparing false returns for 15 clients between 2002 and 2004, as well as for three individuals posing as taxpayers but who were, unbeknownst to Adams, working undercover for the Comptroller’s Office.

The case was investigated by the Field Enforcement Division of the State Comptroller’s Office working jointly with the Attorney General’s Criminal Investigations Division and the Maryland State Police. A criminal information is merely an accusation of wrongdoing, and every individual is presumed innocent until the charges are proven by the State. The maximum penalty on each count of preparing false tax returns is 5 years and a $10,000 fine.