Can a fishy accountant get you in trouble with the IRS? And how to prevent it?

[Mary Jay]

Hi guys,

I have a question for you:

I have an acquaintance who went to jail for tax fraud. He says another big business came to town and wanted to buy him out, but he refused. So that business sent a couple of accountants his way and he did not know it was a set up and hired them.

He trusted them and was staying out of their business but those accountants set him up, and during an IRS audit there was something that he went to jail for.

I am kind of unclear, would not it be an accountants fault since they did his taxes, and not his fault?

How to prevent being set up like that?