St. Louis Man Sentenced to 46 Months for Preparing false Tax Returns

ST. LOUIS - U.S. District Judge Audrey G. Fleissig on Wednesday sentenced a St. Louis, Missouri tax preparer to 46 months in prison for filing false tax returns that caused an estimated tax loss of $2.5 million.

Robert Droege, 59, pleaded guilty in June to four counts of aiding in the preparation of a fraudulent tax return and admitted preparing at least 34 false tax returns in his home office, Bob's Tax Service, in the 6500 block of Morganford Road in St. Louis.

Droege prepared returns for clients that contained false or fraudulent information including medical expenses, charitable contributions, personal property rental expenses, non-business bad debt and other deductions. The government alleged that Droege caused a total loss to the Internal Revenue Service of an estimated $2.5 million.

Internal Revenue Service - Criminal Investigations investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Linda Lane prosecuted the case.