CEDAR RAPIDS – A man who prepared fraudulent tax returns for himself and others was sentenced on March 13, 2026, to three years in federal prison.
Tresor Mugogo Ngoy, age 41, from Waterloo, Iowa, received the prison term after an August 25, 2025, guilty plea to one count of making and subscribing a false tax return.
Mugogo Ngoy admitted that he signed and filed a false tax return in his own name for the 2020 tax year. Evidence at sentencing showed that he also filed false tax returns in his own name for every tax year between 2017 and 2022. Evidence also showed that Mugogo Ngoy, who is originally from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, was being paid by other people in the Congolese community in Waterloo to prepare tax returns. Mugogo Ngoy falsified tax returns by claiming deductions and credits to which the taxpayers were not entitled. Mugogo Ngoy prepared more than 50 false returns that claimed more than $250,000 in fraudulent refunds. He was generally paid between $100 and $300 in cash to prepare a tax return.
Mugogo Ngoy has been in the United States since 2012. His lengthy criminal record includes five convictions for operating while intoxicated and convictions for other driving-related offenses. Mugogo Ngoy is currently serving a five-year prison term in the State of Iowa after an April 2025 conviction for operating while intoxicated in Black Hawk County.
Mugogo Ngoy was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Chief Judge C.J. Williams. He was sentenced to 36 months’ imprisonment and ordered to make more than $250,000 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service. He must also serve a one-year term of supervised release after the prison term. There is no parole in the federal system.
“As the tax filing deadline looms, most taxpayers are filing timely, accurate tax returns. But those looking to cheat the government should know IRS—Criminal Investigation exists to track cheaters down and hold them accountable,” said IRS-CI Special Agent in Charge William Steenson. “That not only applies to individual filers, but also to those who prepare and submit fraudulent tax returns for others.”
“The American income-tax system relies on trust and honesty,” said United States Attorney Leif Olson. “Not just the federal government’s trust that we’ll pay our taxes honestly, but each taxpayer’s trust in every other taxpayer that we’ll all play by the rules. When a cheat like Mugogo Ngoy drains money from the federal treasury, he isn’t taking advantage of a system; he’s taking advantage of every one of us who has paid taxes honestly. Now he’ll pay the price.”
Mugogo Ngoy is being held in the United States Marshal’s custody until he can be transported to a federal prison.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Anthony Morfitt and investigated by the Internal Revenue Service—Criminal Investigation.
