https://fox17.com/news/local/franklin-accountant-charged-with-wire-fraud-money-laundering-tax-fraud-total-estimate-over-39-million

A Franklin accountant has been charged with wire fraud, money laundering, and tax fraud.

A federal indictment was unsealed Tuesday, revealing the charges against 36-year-old Jason Alexander Jerkins, a certified public accountant and the owner of Jerkins Business Solutions (JBS). JBS has provided tax preparation, bookkeeping, and payroll services, among other accounting and financial services, for individuals and businesses since 2015.

Jerkins was the sole proprietor of this business and was the only person managing its bank accounts. He had locations in both Nashville and Fairview, Tenn.

Jerkins is accused of initiating wire transfers out of his client's accounts and into his private bank accounts. To provide a sense of false legitimacy to these transfers, Jerkins would use Intuit QuickBooks to label the transfers as "Intuit", "Jerkins Business Sol” or “Jerkins Business Sale."Jerkins would also make these withdrawals around the same time as the clients' legitimate payroll or tax payments, making the transfers appear to be legitimate.

Investigators say Jerkins would also withdraw funds from clients' accounts as if they were paying for other business expenses, but in reality, he was allegedly depositing them into his bank account.

According to authorities, on one occasion Jerkins did repay a client the amount of an unauthorized withdrawal, but he used funds from another client to repay this client.

Investigators predict Jerkins allegedly initiated 400 wire transfers, totaling over $3.9 million.

They also believe Jerkins used these funds to purchase residential real estate on at least one occasion.

Besides fraudulent wire transfers, Jerkins is accused of also filing false tax returns for at least two clients. The tax returns would report false deductions and false business expenses, which the taxpayers did not incur.

If Jerkins is convicted on his charges, he may face up to twenty years in federal prison for the wire fraud count, up to ten years in federal prison for the money laundering count, and up to three years in federal prison for each count of preparing false tax returns. His real estate purchased during this time with the accused stolen funds would also be forfeited.

This investigation is still ongoing with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).