Back in November I wrote about the Ozbay family of Schenectady, New York. They didn’t commit one piece of tax fraud. No, they committed lots of tax fraud. They didn’t pay income tax, they structured their transactions, and they didn’t pay withholding taxes to the government that they withheld from their employees.
Ziya Ozbay is the first of the four Ozbays to be sentenced. He got ten years at ClubFed and he must surrender $6.8 million of his ill-gotten gains. Ziya was found guilty along with his son-in-law, Yalcin Ozbay (he will be sentenced on April 13th). Mustafa Ozbay, Ziya’s brother, pleaded guilty along with Mustafa’s son, Birol Ozbay. Birol will be sentenced on March 28th and Mustafa on April 26th. (News story here.)
Meanwhile, in White Plains, New York, Duane Howell has probably prepared his last tax return for a client. The 72-year old Howell pleaded guilty yesterday to conspiring to obstruct the IRS, preparing false tax returns, and obstructing the IRS.
Mr. Howell falsified expenses on the partnership returns of his clients, adding phony expenses that reduced the liability for his clients. It’s not a bad way to attract clients—if you can get away with it. Personally, I don’t recommend it as the consequences can be disastrous. For Mr. Howell, he faces up to eight years at ClubFed according to this story.