<p>I can’t believe it. There are people who will risk jail time to do this. What would happen had H found out this one year earlier? Does anyone have any details what did the parents do? If they falsify taxes, the IRS should also get them to court. </p>
<p>apparently this is a 5 month old story. I just saw it on Yahoo.</p>
<p>Sound like they filed correct tax but change the numbers on the Profile submission. We all have to submit the tax forms to schools, right? It should be very easy to see the number on the tax form do not match those in the profile. How come it take H three years to discover this? Does this mean that no one really look and cross reference those documents at all? </p>
<p>Some “financial gymnastics” are perfectly legal. It is almost like filing for tax. Most of the people will try to find each and every legal way to pay less tax. </p>
<p>why should I be nervous AT ALL? This article shows that cheaters will be caught and possibly put in jail. I hope this will quiet all those who accused me of doing anything wrong. Did you see my name in the paper?</p>
<p>You post an article like this when you continually brag about manipulating your millions to bilk the colleges for $$$$ and you think this is going to vindicate you? Dream on.</p>
<p>“Maybe he sent doctored tax returns to just the school, not the IRS.”</p>
<p>From the article in The Crimson:</p>
<p>“Joseph N. Fonge and Barbara E. Fonge caused false and fraudulent financial information to be submitted to FAFSA and IDOC, by, among other things, underreporting their wages, income, sources of income, and adjusted gross income reported on their federal income tax returns,” U.S. Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz and Assistant U.S. Attorney Victoria A. Wild wrote in the complaint.”</p>
<p>Looks like tax fraud to me, also. </p>
<p>I bet he wishes he just paid the tuition, now. I imagine years in prison (max 20 but he probably will get less) and the fines alone will destroy whatever wealth he has. </p>
<p>DadII, for years folks here have been asking YOU what financial gymnastics YOU did to get the significant need based aid you got for your kids. Do you care to share…finally?</p>
<p>The dad filed fraudulent tax returns to the gov’t. Those returns were used by Harvard (FAFSA & CSS Profile) to award aid.</p>
<p>The dad didn’t file “good” tax returns to the gov’t and phony ones to H…at least that’s what it sounds like to me from the piece.</p>
<p>And, his other D got big aid from URoch from the same forms…for what appears to be the first year of the H child’s award. Must have been the year that he’d have two in school and decided he couldn’t pay for two and went crazy.</p>
<p>Looks like H was the one who discovered the fraud (wonder how?) during a review of the 2012-13 aid award process…which appears to be the D’s senior year.</p>
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<p>The Fonges are charged for three counts of wire fraud, corresponding to documents submitted in 2010, 2011, and 2012, respectively.</p>
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<p>Are they not prosecuting the wife? I know that only one parent “files” FAFSA and CSS, but wouldn’t both be filing the taxes?</p>
<p>“Are they not prosecuting the wife? I know that only one parent “files” FAFSA and CSS, but wouldn’t both be filing the taxes?”</p>
<p>Maybe she agreed to some deal with the IRS or they are still working on the case as these charges only seem to deal with defrauding Harvard & UofR. </p>
<p>I cannot imagine that the feds are not going to bring charges for defrauding the gov’t or at the very least let them settle and only make them pay astronomical fines - $500,000 for example. </p>
<p>Of course it is legal to use appropriate tax shelters. However, we all know that there are people who are “crossing the line” and moving/purchasing assets overseas or putting assets into other people’s names. </p>
<p>We also see examples of families who own their own businesses who are doing more than just taking legit deductions. These same folks are the ones who claim to have AGIs of well under $50k, but somehow have paid-off homes, huge savings/investment accts, etc. I suspect that they’re not declaring much/any of the cash that comes into their business.</p>
<p>I wonder what his wife did for a living. These schools believed that they were very low income. How did they pull that off without being self-employed or having some control of documents or something?</p>
<p>They lived in a nice home (not too expensive), but maybe too nice for a “low income family”. They sold their home in July…maybe to avoid it being taken?</p>
<p>I think that what he did was to file correct returns to the IRS but creative ones on the FAFSA and CSS. He probably got away with it when the FAFSA was not entirely connected to the IRS. Fwiw, the current forms have provisions to have the IRS data verified and pasted on the FAFSA forms for an immediate verification. This will probably become a standard practice in the long run for everyone who filed returns. </p>
<p>Fwiw, my money is that this people were turned in by others who might have heard them talking too much about “free rides” at Harvard as opposed to have been uncovered through audits at the school. </p>