The rise and fall of Roni Deutch
If you lived in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Sacramento, or Phoenix in the 2000s, you probably remember the endless Ron Deutch Tax Center commercials:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBkeYAW6Nnk
The most memorable thing about the commercials was actually the aggressive, guttural way she would say her last name:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MNqJn8RWmM
Deutch started her tax preparation company in 2006, and quickly franchised to 80 locations throughout the country, though most of them were in California, Arizona, and Nevada.
Previously, she had been an attorney since 1991.
However, after enjoying success with these franchised tax preparation centers, she got greedy. She founded a new firm called Professional Tax Corporation, a law firm which promised to lower people's back taxes.
However, the entire system Deutch set up revolved around expensive "tax reduction packages", yet often clients receiving such packages received little-to-no tax relief. Tons of consumer complaints rolled in.
The first action against Deutch occurred in New York. The same year she launched, the state complained that her company advertised "Offer in Compromise" services on TV (where the IRS accepts less than the total tax bill), when in reality most people do not qualify for it. She settled for $300,000 with the state.
The bigger action came in California in 2010. Attorney General Jerry Brown -- who was also former governor and running again to be governor that year -- filed a $34 million lawsuit on behalf of the state against Deutch.
In this lawsuit, Brown alleged that Deutch's company engaged in "high pressure boiler room sales tactics", selling expensive packages to unsuspecting clients, claiming a "99 percent success rate" in lowering people's tax bills. In reality, the state claimed Deutch's firm succeeded only 10% of the time.
The lawsuit also alleged that the TV commercials featured false testimonials of success.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuTTb5c-Vts
Furthermore, the lawsuit claimed that Deutch's firm would collect retainers of $1200 to $4700 up front, and then do very little actual work, all while IRS penalties against the client would accrue. When the frustrated client would finally give up and demand a refund, Deutch would refuse to provide one, often providing false billing statements to show how the money was spent.
Roni then allegedly shredded millions of documents, as well as withdrew money from the bank in order to avoid it being seized to pay back the clients who complained to the state.
The state then decided to hold her in contempt of court, and a criminal case started.
In 2011, she surrendered her license to practice law.
In 2015, she settled everything, where the criminal charges of contempt were dropped, the civil matter was settled for $2.5 million, and she had to do 350 hours of community service.
In 2016, she appeared on this newscast, looking about 20 years older. Amazingly, she was only 53 years old in this segment:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Rzrx2XckOw
LOL at how these scammers always make it about being unjustly persecuted by the government.
She was the worst kind of scammer -- preying upon the fears of working class people in order to take their bottom dollar, while doing nothing useful for them.
I used to see her ads all the time on TV Land, which showed old reruns of shows like "All in the Family".
Since then, some people are alleging that Deutch is up to the same tricks again, this time along with her brother (who has a different last name), with firms called "OMG Tax" and "Tax Defense Group". Check out these complaints: https://roni-deutch.pissedconsumer.com/review.html
