Frank Zerjav Frank L. Zerjav Sr, Tiger Zerjav, FRANK L. Frank Zerjav JR - Local Tax Advisor Sentenced For Tax Evasion St. Louis Missouri

I hired Frank L Zerjav Sr to do my taxes. He neglected to tell me that the IRS had recently raided his accounting firm (The firm goes by several names. Advisory Group, Zerjav associates etc) and that the IRS was suing him. That would have been a nice piece of information to know before hiring him. He also neglected to tell me that his son Frank Zerjav Jr would be handling my account. Frank Jr, aka Tiger, was found guilty of tax evasion and sentenced to prison.

He comes across as if he knows more than other accountants. He created several companies under S corporations and various other structures. Only one company did any real business. The others he created had very few transactions. However, to my surprise he billed me for each corporate structer as if it were a new company. So if I had 5 corporations then Zerjav billed all 5 seperately at the end of the year. So sneaky Frank makes 5 times the amount of money off of you as he prepares your taxes. Yikes, that bill adds up.

To shorten the story of this nightmare. Frank Zerjav finally lost his battle with the IRS. Since then many of his clients have been selected by the IRS to be audited. So here is another racket. As a customer of Zerjav you mysteriosly get audited by the IRS and then Frank Zerjav's company charges you to handle the audit for you. Chances are that you wouldn't have been audited if you would have chosen a different accounting firm. 

Clients were typically advised to create S-corporations into which the income from their businesses would be funneled.  Since the net income from an S-Corporation flows through to the owner for inclusion on the owner’s personal income tax return, there is an obvious incentive to maximize deductions on the S-corporation return.  Tiger Zerjav used this strategy in preparing his tax returns for the years 2001 through 2004.

In March 2010, Tiger Zerjav and Frank Zerjav Sr., and the Advisory Group entities entered into an agreement with the United States which included the following stipulations: (1) the Advisory Group would cease doing business; (2) Tiger Zerjav would not be involved in tax preparation activities for a three-year period and (3) Zerjav & Company would cease using many of the tax strategies mentioned above.

Assistant U.S. Attorney James Crowe, Jr. called it “brazen and deceptive,” and said Zerjav “did it systematically.”

Crowe also complained that the while the criminal case was pending, Zerjav failed to disclose $932,000 he'd received as part of an insurance settlement, $131,000 in money that went to a girlfriend, cash transactions and checks.

“His entire. . . financial world is a mystery,” Crowe said, adding that the only way Zerjav would get the message is with prison time.

Zerjav pleaded guilty in federal court here in December to four felony counts of tax evasion.

He and his father ran two companies: Zerjav & Company PC, an accounting firm that primarily prepared business and personal tax returns, and Advisory Group USA LC, which offered tax planning.

In 2010, both Zerjavs agreed to close the Advisory Group. Zerjav agreed to refrain from preparing taxes for three years and Zerjav & Company agreed to stop using certain deduction-maximizing tax strategies.

Reference:
https://www.justice.gov/usao-edmo/pr/local-tax-advisor-sentenced-tax-evasion

https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/tax-advisor-from-wildwood-gets-months-for-evading-his-own/article_d283aa91-ac91-5539-a036-a00d202d5f0b.html