NEW YORK, N.Y. — A tax preparer who promised clients he could shrink what they owed the government has pleaded guilty in Manhattan to pocketing at least $250,000 from New York clients instead, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office said Friday.
Jonathan Ernest Girodes, 48, who ran a firm called American Accounting Services Inc. and lives in Miami, entered his plea in state Supreme Court to a single count of second-degree grand larceny, which is a class C felony. Under his plea deal he is expected to receive 4 to 8 years in state prison when he returns for sentencing on Nov. 23.
Prosecutors said that from October 2022 through July 2025 he went after at least three clients who had recently come into money. Two were older couples, one living on proceeds from selling the home they had owned for four decades and another sorting out money left by a relative who died. The third was a medical student who had inherited money meant to cover school costs.
Girodes pitched each of them on an offer in compromise, an arrangement that can let a taxpayer settle a debt for less than the full balance. He said he would bargain with the IRS and New York State tax officials, and told the clients to send him part of what they expected to owe so he could park it in escrow. He kept the money, prosecutors said, then claimed the agencies wanted still more and at times backed up the demands with forged IRS or state letters.
No offer was ever negotiated and no taxes were paid for the victims, who lost tens of thousands of dollars apiece and were left to cover their original bills plus penalties and interest.
Girodes was indicted in October 2025 on two counts of second-degree grand larceny, a third-degree grand larceny count and a first-degree scheme to defraud count before he agreed to plead to the single charge. District Attorney Alvin Bragg urged anyone who thinks they were the victim of a financial crime to contact his office.
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