Profiles · Defendants
- Type
- Person
- Role
- Defendant
- Programs
- ERC
- Updated
The profile
A Union City, Georgia truck-company owner who ran a side business as a "ghost" tax preparer and filed 35 payroll returns for himself and two clients claiming $4,112,297 in Employee Retention Credit refunds. The Treasury mailed $1,567,855. He was sentenced in December 2025 to 84 months.
Identity and role
Dantavious Jackson, 39, of Union City, Georgia, owned and operated a trucking business there, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Georgia, and prepared tax forms for others on the side, for a fee. IRS Criminal Investigation investigated the case, which was prosecuted in Augusta.
The scheme and pandemic-relief role
Anyone paid to prepare federal returns must get a preparer tax identification number (PTIN) from the IRS and put it on every return. Jackson worked as what the office calls a "ghost preparer," "omitting his identity by PTIN or by any other means on the returns he filed for clients."
According to court documents, he prepared and filed 35 Forms 941 for himself and two clients that falsely claimed $4,112,297 in refunds based on the Employee Retention Credit (ERC). He fabricated wages and employees, and the Treasury mailed $1,567,855 in refunds to him and his clients, about 38 percent of the amount claimed.
Legal status / controversies
- Pleaded guilty: to mail fraud, announced July 7, 2025.
- Sentenced: December 15, 2025, by U.S. District Judge Dudley H. Bowen Jr. to 84 months in prison and more than $1.5 million in restitution to the IRS.
Where they are now (2025–2026)
The December 2025 sentence is the last public record of Jackson we found. At 84 months for about $1.57 million paid out, the sentence equals Ryan Glidewell's for a ring that got $1.8 million.
Sources
- U.S. Attorney's Office, S.D. Ga., "Union City 'Ghost Preparer' Pleads Guilty to Fraudulently Seeking Over $4 Million in COVID-19 Employment Tax Credits" (July 7, 2025) — original: https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdga/pr/union-city-ghost-preparer-pleads-guilty-fraudulently-seeking-over-4-million-covid-19
- U.S. Attorney's Office, S.D. Ga., "Union City 'Ghost Preparer' Sentenced to Prison for Fraudulently Seeking Over $4 Million in COVID-19 Employment Tax Credits" (Dec. 16, 2025) — original: https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdga/pr/union-city-ghost-preparer-sentenced-prison-fraudulently-seeking-over-4-million-covid