From left, Stephen Uhl of Erie, Matt Lorenz of Highlands Ranch and Yelda Mohmand of Texas. (LMU Consulting)
A firm in Westminster that helps companies resolve their unpaid tax bills is now in court, where it’s accusing three former employees of absconding with three dozen of its clients.
Tax Guard, which was founded in 2009, said the alleged breach costs it $1.2 million per year and includes a large client that owes $60 million to the Internal Revenue Service.
The dispute has its origins in 2018, when Tax Guard hired Stephen Uhl of Erie, Matt Lorenz of Highlands Ranch and a Texas woman named Yelda Mohmand. The three, given the title of IRS enrolled agents, signed nondisclosure agreements, Tax Guard said.
They averaged about $175,000 in total monthly revenue between them in 2022, their former employer says. But by mid-2023, they were allegedly leaving work undone.
“The purpose of doing so,” Tax Guard wrote in a Feb. 22 lawsuit filed in Boulder, “was to preserve work that should have been done for those clients by Tax Guard so that the work could later be performed through (their) newly founded competing entity, LMU Consulting.”
LMU was founded last May in Louisville. “Like a seasoned ship captain navigating the icy waters of the sea,” its website said, “our team has been navigating the IRS maze for decades.”
Uhl, Lorenz and Mohmand then “sent almost identically worded emails to their respective Tax Guard clients informing the clients of their impending departures from Tax Guard,” according to the company. The emails invited clients to contact them after they left Tax Guard.
On July 3, Uhl, Lorenz and Mohmand resigned without warning, Tax Guard said. Soon after that, Tax Guard began to notice unusual emails were being sent to its ex-employees.
Twenty-nine former Tax Guard clients mistakenly emailed Uhl, Lorenz and Mohmand’s Tax Guard emails with details about their new arrangements with LMU, Tax Guard claims. Some, including the client identified as “Rec.” with the $60 million liability, even emailed over copies of their new service agreements with LMU, according to Tax Guard’s lawsuit.
All told, 36 Tax Guard clients left for LMU, according to the Westminster company. Those 36 had paid about $1.2 million to Tax Guard during the 2022-2023 fiscal year, it claims.
LMU did not respond to BusinessDen’s emails, phone calls and voicemails seeking comment.
Tax Guard is suing LMU and its trio of co-founders for fraud and deceit, breach of their NDAs, unjust enrichment, theft of trade secrets and more. Among other damages, Tax Guard believes that Uhl, Lorenz and Mohmand should have to repay the wages they “received from Tax Guard during all periods in which they were disloyal” to the Westminster company.
Tax Guard’s lawyers are Jason Pink and Charles Testa with Berg Hill Greenleaf Ruscitti.
From left, Stephen Uhl of Erie, Matt Lorenz of Highlands Ranch and Yelda Mohmand of Texas. (LMU Consulting)
A firm in Westminster that helps companies resolve their unpaid tax bills is now in court, where it’s accusing three former employees of absconding with three dozen of its clients.
Tax Guard, which was founded in 2009, said the alleged breach costs it $1.2 million per year and includes a large client that owes $60 million to the Internal Revenue Service.
The dispute has its origins in 2018, when Tax Guard hired Stephen Uhl of Erie, Matt Lorenz of Highlands Ranch and a Texas woman named Yelda Mohmand. The three, given the title of IRS enrolled agents, signed nondisclosure agreements, Tax Guard said.
They averaged about $175,000 in total monthly revenue between them in 2022, their former employer says. But by mid-2023, they were allegedly leaving work undone.
“The purpose of doing so,” Tax Guard wrote in a Feb. 22 lawsuit filed in Boulder, “was to preserve work that should have been done for those clients by Tax Guard so that the work could later be performed through (their) newly founded competing entity, LMU Consulting.”
LMU was founded last May in Louisville. “Like a seasoned ship captain navigating the icy waters of the sea,” its website said, “our team has been navigating the IRS maze for decades.”
Uhl, Lorenz and Mohmand then “sent almost identically worded emails to their respective Tax Guard clients informing the clients of their impending departures from Tax Guard,” according to the company. The emails invited clients to contact them after they left Tax Guard.
On July 3, Uhl, Lorenz and Mohmand resigned without warning, Tax Guard said. Soon after that, Tax Guard began to notice unusual emails were being sent to its ex-employees.
Twenty-nine former Tax Guard clients mistakenly emailed Uhl, Lorenz and Mohmand’s Tax Guard emails with details about their new arrangements with LMU, Tax Guard claims. Some, including the client identified as “Rec.” with the $60 million liability, even emailed over copies of their new service agreements with LMU, according to Tax Guard’s lawsuit.
All told, 36 Tax Guard clients left for LMU, according to the Westminster company. Those 36 had paid about $1.2 million to Tax Guard during the 2022-2023 fiscal year, it claims.
LMU did not respond to BusinessDen’s emails, phone calls and voicemails seeking comment.
Tax Guard is suing LMU and its trio of co-founders for fraud and deceit, breach of their NDAs, unjust enrichment, theft of trade secrets and more. Among other damages, Tax Guard believes that Uhl, Lorenz and Mohmand should have to repay the wages they “received from Tax Guard during all periods in which they were disloyal” to the Westminster company.
Tax Guard’s lawyers are Jason Pink and Charles Testa with Berg Hill Greenleaf Ruscitti.
