After all, Thanksgiving comes on Thursday, so we should thank these miscreants and alleged miscreants for helping make a blogger’s life easy.
Let’s start in Manhattan. James Ortenzio used to be the chairman of the New York County (Manhattan) Republican party. Now he’s just another individual who has pleaded guilty to tax evasion. Mr. Ortenzio didn’t disclose $180,000 he received in consulting income in 2004-2005. The investigation into Mr. Ortenzio grew out of an investigation into the Cipriani family restaurant business. Mr. Ortenzio is lucky in one respect; he’ll serve no time at ClubFed. He has to file corrected tax returns (and pay the tax, penalties, and interest) and will be on probation for five years.
Let’s move west to Helena, Montana. Rolan Becker worked as a forester for two Indian tribes in the state. However, he bought tapes and attended seminars that said he could declare himself “exempt” from income taxes. Mr. Becker also made the brilliant move of walking into an IRS office and telling the clerk that he wasn’t going to file tax returns and that the only reason to file false W-4 forms is to evade taxes. Did I mention that Mr. Becker did exactly that? He was found guilty of tax evasion.
Judge Charles Lovell noted that Mr. Becker worked for a quasi-governmental agency for twelve years and wondered if he realize that it was taxes that paid for his salary. “You are probably the most flagrant protester and tax dodger that I have seen. It makes one wonder where the United States government would be in today’s world if everybody took the same attitude as this defendant.”
The judge gave Mr. Becker 27 months at ClubFed, and ordered him to make restitution of $91,700. Additionally, Mr. Becker was ordered to pay $50,000 to cover the cost of his time at ClubFed and $1,700 to help pay for his prosecution. And that’s not all. The judge urged the US Attorney to consider charging Mr. Becker with hiding his assets by transferring real estate back and forth to an LLC he created.
Finally, let’s head to the heartland—Belleville, Illinois. A dentist there decided that he didn’t need to report $347,000 of his income. He also decided to take $127,000 of withheld taxes and keep them. Gerald Dortch pleaded guilty to tax evasion; he’ll likely be spending some time at ClubFed.
As I repeatedly say, there is an income tax and you do have to pay it. And it’s a whole lot easier to pay it than to evade it and then pay the tax, penalties, and interest.