Not his first rodeo.
PHOENIX (AP) — A longtime advocate for immigrants in Arizona has pleaded guilty Friday to a felony charge tied to his tax preparation business after acknowledging that he falsely added dependents — including three children who lived in Mexico — to his clients’ tax returns to maximize refundable credits.
Elias Bermudez, who more than a decade ago led protests against Arizona’s immigration laws and then-Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s crackdowns on immigrants, pleaded guilty to one charge of assisting in the preparation of false tax returns.
Authorities say Bermudez, who owned a business that helped immigrants prepare immigration and tax documents, prepared 27 false income tax returns from 2010 through 2012 and encouraged clients to list family members living in Mexico — many of whom weren’t their children — as dependents.
In pleading guilty, Bermudez acknowledged that he filed one false tax return that listed three Mexican children as dependents, leading to a $4,000 loss for the United States’ government. As part of the plea, 26 other charges against Bermudez will be dismissed.
The 67-year-old Bermudez faces up to three years in prison.
He told U.S. District Judge Diane Humetewa that he made a terrible mistake in not asking whether the three children in question lived in the United States.
He is known for kneeling down in front of Arpaio at a 2006 protest to ask the lawman to stop arresting immigrants, a request the sheriff denied.
Bermudez previously worked as a talk show host for a Spanish-language radio show in Phoenix and served as a leader of the group Immigrants Without Borders and as a vice mayor in San Luis, Arizona.
He was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison in 1996 for a money laundering conviction.