Department of Justice Highlights Some of The Major Tax Prosecutions

Hiring a criminal tax attorney is an important decision. Department of Justice Tax Division has made it very clear that willful violations of federal tax laws will lead to prosecution and possible imprisonment. The Department  has also continued to prosecute foreign bank account (FBAR) cases against taxpayers hiding and/or concealing millions of dollars in offshore accounts. Below is a snapshot of some of those cases and others highlighted by the Department of Justice Tax Division found at this link:

• A Missouri roofing contractor, pleaded guilty to filing false 2007 and 2008 income tax returns. Contractor operated his roofing business under the name Eagle Roofing Co. He late filed false 2007 and 2008 returns that underreported his business’s gross receipts by approximately $959,500 and $794,680.
• A Philadelphia, Pennsylvania tech business owner,pleaded guilty to tax evasion. Taxpayer owned New Wave Logistics Inc. He evaded more than $800,000 in taxes by cashing a significant amount of his business’s gross receipts at a check cashing facility, lying to his accountant about the total amount of income he earned and filing false tax returns.
• a Las Vegas, Nevada liquor storeowner, was sentenced to serve 41 months in prison for tax evasion and conspiring to defraud the United States. He and his conspirators skimmed cash receipts and provided their accountant with a phony set of books that omitted nearly $4 million in cash receipts.
• Washington businessman,pleaded guilty to filing a false individual income tax return. He owned and operated a produce sales business. He underreported his income by approximately $564,292.
• Former owners of a bar, Sully’s Pub in West Des Moines, Iowa, pleaded guilty to aiding and assisting in filing a false tax return. The owners filed a false 2013 tax return that did not report cash that they earned through their business.
• Two Louisiana attorneys,pleaded guilty to failing to file individual income tax returns. when they regularly received cash payments, had a partnership interest in a tax return preparation business, and did not file 2007 through 2009 income tax returns.
• Mississippi businessman, and owner of demolition and construction companies was sentenced to serve 12 months in prison for failing to file an individual income tax return.
• Insurance salesman who failed to file timely return for several years was convicted at trial Ohio resident, was convicted at trial for failing to pay more than $1 million in income taxes, interest and penalties.
• A Texas artist, was sentenced to serve 12 months in prison for failing to file an individual income tax return. He did not file tax returns for 2006 through 2009, despite earning more than $1.3 million in income during this time.
• Florida owner of Demandblox, a marketing and information technology business,pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit tax and bank fraud. He conspired to move more than $2.5 million to offshore accounts in Belize and disguised them as business expenses in the corporate records and used the funds to pay for personal expenses and purchase significant personal assets.
• A Los Angeles, California businessman, was sentenced to serve 24 months in prison for hiding more than $23.5 million in offshore bank accounts which he maintained several undeclared bank accounts at Israeli banks, both in his name and in the names of entities that he created. He diverted more than $21 million in untaxed gross business income to those undeclared accounts and earned more than $2.5 million in interest income and reported none of this income on his individual and corporate tax returns.
• Orange County, California residents pleaded guilty to hiding millions of dollars in secret foreign bank accounts; they willfully failed to file legally required reports, commonly known as FBARs, disclosing their bank accounts in Switzerland and Israel.
• Married couple plead guily to defrauding the IRS. The wife earned income through her ownership interest in two companies that owned Southern California mobile home parks. The married couple also established a number of purported trusts. They owned bank accounts in the names of these trusts using fabricated taxpayer identification numbers and paid personal expenses from the accounts, causing a tax loss of $376,350.
• California man was sentenced to serve 33 months in prison based on failure to file returns and pay taxes despite earning significant income as a partner with an engineering company. He attempted to frustrate IRS collection and audit efforts by filing lawsuits against the IRS and, to conceal his income, used prepaid debit cards and money orders to pay personal expenses.
• A St. Petersburg, Florida man, was sentenced to serve 21 months in prison. He evaded a substantial portion of his individual income taxes for 2007 through 2011 and interfered with an IRS audit. Notably he also fabricated a letter from the IRS to a bank directing the bank to send subpoenaed records to a bogus address.
• A Greensboro, North Carolina resident and former IRS revenue officer, pleaded guilty. He filed tax returns each year but has not paid since at least 1998, created nominee bank accounts to hide hundreds of thousands of dollars from the IRS, submitted false information to the investigating IRS officer regarding these accounts and transferred funds from nominee accounts to avoid impending IRS levies.
• A North Carolina man, was sentenced to serve 21 months in prison. He failed to file tax returns for 2003 through 2006, and the IRS assessed income tax against him for those years and attempted to evade payment of his tax debt by filing false disclosures with the IRS, omitting businesses that he owned as well as bank accounts and rental income.

A criminal tax attorney can assist a taxpayer in navigating complex IRS procedures and protocols. A tax attorney can also ensure that a taxpayer invokes and vigorously asserts her rights at each stage during the course of an investigation.