There’s tax evasion, and there’s big-time tax evasion. Bill Melot, of Hobbs, New Mexico, committed really big-time evasion.
Mr. Melot had a farm near Hobbs. The news report doesn’t indicate what he grew, but he did get farm subsidies from the US Department of Agriculture.
But Mr. Melot didn’t want to pay taxes. And he didn’t–the last tax return he filed was in 1986. He used a false social security number and a phony Federal Employer Identification Number (EIN) with the USDA. Among his other crimes, he got $225,000 of farm subsidies illegally.
That, though, is the least of Mr. Melot’s troubles. His back tax bill totals $18 million. He neglected to report a bank account with Nordfinanz Zurich in the Bahamas. And he was convicted on Friday of tax evasion, failure to file tax returns, impeding the IRS, and making false statement to the USDA.
Mr. Melot will be sentenced in May, and he’ll be spending years at ClubFed.
[…] I’ve actually written about this case before. Back in 2010 Bill Melot, a farmer in New Mexico, was convicted of tax evasion, agriculture program fraud, and several related offenses. His tax liability to the IRS was estimated at $18 million. When he was sentenced in 2011 he received five years at ClubFed followed by three years of supervised release. Mr. Melot appealed his conviction; the government appealed the sentence. The DOJ thought he should receive a far longer stay at ClubFed. […]