Vancouver, Washington, tax preparer sentenced to 18-months in prison

Date: Dec. 19, 2025

Contact: newsroom@ci.irs.gov

TACOMA – A high-volume tax preparer in Vancouver, Washington, was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Tacoma to 18 months in federal prison for sixteen counts of aiding and assisting in the preparation of false and fraudulent tax returns, to be followed by a 135-month concurrent sentence imposed by Clark County for his convictions on a state attempted murder charge announced U.S. Attorney Charles Neil Floyd. Keith Altamirano operated Integrity Investments, LLC, doing business as “Servicios Latinos.” Between 2017 and 2021, Altamirano prepared at least 12,000 tax returns. A statistical sampling analysis reveals that his false entries on customer tax returns cost the U.S. Treasury more than $5 million in tax loss. At the sentencing hearing Chief U.S. District Judge David G. Estudillo said that tax preparer fraud impacts our government’s ability to “function properly” and that adequate “deterrence [was] necessary.”

According to records filed in the case, Altamirano falsified clients’ income tax submissions by listing fake medical expenses, charitable donations for deductions, listing fake cars for depreciation and expense deductions, and by listing fabricated and inflated business expenses. Altamirano concealed his fraud by omitting his name on his clients’ filed returns. The clients did not know Altamirano falsified their tax return to get them a larger refund. Altamirano’s fraud helped build his business as customers recommended him to others to get larger refunds.

In asking for a five-year sentence, prosecutors noted that Altamirano’s customers were victimized by his actions. “Altamirano’s clients trusted him (and paid him) to maximize their deductions honestly and in accordance with the law. His clients were not tax literate, and they chose him as their trusted professional. Altamirano greatly abused this trust and put them at risk by creating fraudulent returns on their behalf. Many of his clients have been audited and risk penalties and back taxes. His clients believed they were hiring a professional to ensure their taxes were done correctly and many of them have had to deal with the stress of being embroiled in Altamirano’s criminal affairs.”

The tax loss for the 16 counts he pleaded guilty to is $104,518. Altamirano agreed to pay that amount in restitution to the IRS. Chief Judge Estudillo ordered Altamirano to sell one of the four properties he owns to pay the restitution.

In September 2025, Altamirano also pled guilty to attempted second degree murder and drug charges in Clark County Superior Court. Altamirano was sentenced to 135 months of imprisonment in his state case, which will run concurrently with his federal sentence according to the Clark County judgment.

The tax fraud case was investigated by the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI).

The tax fraud case is being prosecuted by Amanda McDowell.

IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) is the law enforcement arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more. IRS-CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code, obtaining a 90% federal conviction rate. The agency has 19 field offices located across the U.S. and 14 attaché posts abroad.