Connecticut tax preparer charged with fabricating cryptocurrency and other investment losses for clients on at least 4,335 tax returns

on October 26, according to Bitcoin.com, Yuridia Trujillo, a tax preparer in Meriden, Connecticut, has been charged with fabricating stock and cryptocurrency trading losses on tax returns prepared under her company, Yuri's LLC, for the 2017 to 2024 tax years. These assets were never actually held by the clients. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) alleges that she also used Form 8888 to divert portions of clients' tax refunds into her own and an associate's bank accounts.

A federal grand jury returned an indictment on October 7, and she was arrested on October 9. She remains out on $50,000 bail pending trial, facing 19 counts of assisting in the preparation of false income tax returns, each punishable by up to three years in prison. As these are merely allegations, she is presumed innocent until proven guilty. In a prior related case, Texas bitcoin investor Frank Richard Ahlgren III was sentenced to two years in prison in December 2024 for inflating the cost basis of his bitcoin purchases and was ordered to pay approximately $1.095 million in restitution.