Tax Lady Roni Deutch Says She's Lost Everything, But Insists She Did Nothing Wrong

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — She was known across the country as The Tax Lady. Sacramento lawyer Roni Deutch had thousands of clients and hundreds of employees, until the state hit her with a multimillion-dollar lawsuit, and more than 1,000 criminal counts.

"The past five years for me have been absolutely utter hell," she said.

Deutch doesn't mince words, admitting she's lost everything.

"I lost my home, I lost my car, I lost my job, I lost my career, I lost my medical insurance, I lost everything," she said. "But you know what I gained? My voice."

She's speaking out five years after then-Attorney General Jerry Brown sued her for a staggering $34 million, claiming she mishandled cases by letting them sit, accruing interest and failing to return fees. The state also charged her with more than 1,600 criminal counts related to accusations she failed to keep documents related to the case. Those counts were just dropped.

Now, Deutch says she won.

"After 1,825 days I am vindicated. There is no criminal wrongdoing; there is no guilt; there is no fraud; there is no moral turpitude; there is no dishonesty and there is no guilt, and, I'm sorry that to me is victory," she said. "That to me is hopefully teaching people to stand up. If you are wrongfully accused of something. Have the courage to fight back."

But the tax attorney who built an empire that then crumbled isn't off the hook completely. She was issued a $2.5 million resolution judgment.

"Guess what? I'm broke," she said. "I'm broke. Where are you going to get that $2.5 million?"

She will perform hours of community services. She said she settled because she was exhausted, maintaining her firm acted properly.

"I do not believe that when these clients came on and retained my law firm, we were doing anything intentionally wrong," she said. "Now our law firm grew. Our law firm went from one employee to 200 employees; we had 100,000 clients over 21 years, so did we grow too fast? Possibly, but do I believe that any of my employees did anything intentionally wrong. No way."

She says there is not a day that goes by she doesn't think about the employees she had to lay off when she announced she was closing her offices in 2011.

"When those people were laid off and lost their jobs, and lost their houses, did anyone care about them? What about my 8,000 clients? Did anyone care about my 8,000 clients that were left hanging?" she said.

As for what's next for Deutch, she says she's fired up, intent she was wrongly accused and lost everything. She plans on becoming an advocate for those who need one.

"As far as will I ever be an attorney again? I have absolutely no idea if I'm going to go down that path. The path for me today, is to help people who are wrongfully accused of crimes and make sure that their constitutional rights are protected," she said.