A 71-year-old Santa Ana house-flipper faces up to nine years in federal prison for income tax fraud, the U.S. Attorney’s Office reported Thursday, March 31.

John W. Rampello was convicted Wednesday on two counts of subscribing to a false individual income tax return and a count of aiding and assisting in the preparation of a false individual income tax return.

Rampello is scheduled to be sentenced June 27.

Rampello and his business partners flipped foreclosed homes and sold them in Orange County since the mid-1990s, federal prosecutors said. He and his partners refurbished and sold about 170 homes, making about $2.1 million in profits from 2014 through 2016, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Rampello did not tell those who prepared his income taxes about his business or income, so he underreported his income on his federal returns by hundreds of thousands of dollars, prosecutors said.

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