I enjoyed the local fireworks show last night. The individuals mentioned below are involved in their own legal fireworks relating to tax evasion.
First, if you really want to get into tax trouble, simply don’t remit your trust fund taxes to the government. I guarantee you will get a call from the IRS or your state tax agency. Steven Allard owned various businesses in Rhode Island. Mr. Allard was also going through bankruptcy. He knowingly left off a piece of property from his list of assets; that’s bankruptcy fraud. He also admitted using the trust fund taxes that should have gone to the federal government to purchase cars for himself and his wife. The IRS isn’t appreciative of that, and the government caught on. Given that the total loss being $2.1 million, Mr. Allard is looking at some time at ClubFed, restitution, and a likely fine.
Meanwhile, Richard Prescott thought the world was going to end in 2000. So he stockpiled solar panels, vehicles, and all the other necessary supplies so that when the date changed to 1/1/00 he’d be ready. And who needs to bother to pay taxes if the world is going to end? Well, Mr. Prescott pleaded guilty to tax evasion in Eugene, Oregon this past week for a somewhat more mundane scheme. He admitted being involved in an offshore trust Ponzi scheme; he used the proceeds to purchase his survival supplies. Mr. Prescott’s tax evasion totals $550,000 so he, too, is looking at some time at ClubFed.
Meanwhile, eleven individuals in New York and Pennsylvania allegedly had a not so brilliant idea. Let’s steal some social security numbers from residents of Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico residents, after all, don’t have to file income tax returns if all of their income came from Puerto Rico. We’ll create phony returns for these people, and shock of shocks, they’ll all get refunds. We’ll use a few addresses so all the returns don’t get mailed to the same address.
It’s a great scheme, but so is every scheme…until you get caught. Sooner or later, one of those individuals would have to file a tax return, and the government would wonder why someone had two tax returns. The inevitable investigation would uncover the fraud.
And that’s allegedly what occurred with eleven individuals from New York and Pennsylvania. With the total loss to the government being $18 million, they’re all looking at lengthy terms in ClubFed if convicted.
So I hope you enjoyed the Holiday Weekend. It’s likely the individuals mentioned above had a less than stellar time.