Operator of Reseda tax business charged With fraud, theft

A woman who operated a Reseda-based tax-preparation business that served primarily Spanish-speaking clientele has been charged with stealing nearly $70,000 in state and federal tax refunds from her clients.

Thelma Carcamo, 68, pleaded not guilty Wednesday to 27 counts of filing a fraudulent tax return, 17 counts each of identity theft and forgery, 15 counts of grand theft and four counts of tax evasion, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.

Carcamo, who operated Financial Express International, is accused of giving clients fake federal and state tax returns showing smaller refunds than were actually owed, then pocketing the difference, according to the District Attorney’s Office.

She is accused of stealing $69,747 from 24 people, and willfully failing to file taxes with the California Franchise Tax Board from 2017 through 2020 at an alleged loss of $61,440 to the state, according to prosecutors.

Carcamo’s husband, Rosendo Nunez, 66, is charged with two counts each of identity theft and forgery, while Maria Valenzuela, a 54-year-old former employee of Premier America Credit Union, is charged with 17 counts each of identity theft and forgery, according to the District Attorney’s Office.

Nunez and Valenzuela have also pleaded not guilty.

District Attorney George Gascón said in a statement that he knows “first-hand the vulnerability that comes with being a monolingual Spanish speaker in a new country,” and that “most of these victims are Spanish speakers, and many are new to the United States and unfamiliar with how the tax systems operate.”

“We believe many more people may have been victimized,” the county’s top prosecutor said.

Anyone who suspects they may have been defrauded was asked to call the Los Angeles Police Department’s Financial Crimes Section hotline at 818-374- 9420.

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