In what is becoming a regular happening at HSBC’s tax preparation partner H&R Block, more charges were presented and executives have been exposed. Here it is:
ALBANY, N.Y. - New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer on Monday said he has evidence that H&R Block executives not only knew they were pushing customers to buy money-losing retirement account plans, but penalized employees who refused to recommend them.
Spitzer amended his March suit against the giant tax preparation company with copies of e-mails that he said show managers disregarded complaints from tax preparers about misleading marketing of the retirement product called Express IRA. The internal documents also showed that tax preparers were told “sell more IRAs” or “there’s the door.”
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New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, who this week filed a suit against H&R Block Inc. alleging deceptive marketing of a savings account product, Friday said the tax-preparation company’s public denials make a settlement less likely.
Spitzer, responding to a Wall Street Journal editorial written by H&R Block Chief Executive Mark Ernst on Friday, told Reuters that the company made “misleading, false statements repeatedly” during months of negotiations.
Spitzer also said Ernst’s actions since the suit was filed — including a press release Wednesday, the op-ed piece Friday and the disclosure of negotiations — “make it very difficult for me to imagine that we will settle.”