Lots on the tax evasion front from the last few days. And we have two early entrants into the 2009 Tax Offender of the Year contest.
Larry McClure is one of two owners of Morgan-McClure Motorsports. Morgan-McClure owns a NASCAR team that ran from 1982 through 2007. Mr. McClure was indicted back in October for mail fraud, wire fraud, and tax evasion. Reports are that he will plead guilty this week to filing false tax returns and making false statements to IRS investigators. Mr. McClure may be spending ten years at ClubFed. This all stems from apparently not reporting $325,000 for using cars in the ARCA Re/Max Series.
Anthony Bruno is a disbarred attorney in the Chicagoland area. He either took a wrongful deduction or engaged in deliberate tax fraud. The latter is what he’s been charged with; the former is what his attorney, Jeffrey Steinback, told the Chicago Sun-Times is what really happened. He’s accused of falsely stating a $101,000 loss on his 2006 corporate tax return.
Digna Garrett used to run a nursing temp agency. Her business was quite a bit more profitable than she showed on her tax returns. It helps when you leave off $1.1 million in revenue. However, it can also lead to 18 months at ClubFed. She used the money for trips to Las Vegas and the Philippines instead of paying the IRS.
Finally, two stories from the Bozo taxpayers wing. First, Michael Sabo was a realtor in Las Vegas. He owed just under $100,000 to the IRS. The IRS put three liens on his home in suburban Henderson. So what did Mr. Sabo do? He went to the Clark County Recorder’s office, told the clerk he was an IRS agent, and had the liens removed. That didn’t work out so well as Mr. Sabo was charged with impersonating an officer or employee of the United States and with tax evasion. He pleaded guilty last year and was sentenced last week to a year and a day at ClubFed.
Last June Tony and Micaela Dutson pleaded not guilty to “running an $8 million tax fraud scam.” A new indictment was released last week that alleges that the Dutsons “tried to obstruct the IRS by filing baseless liens against four IRS workers.” Additionally, the Dutsons allegedly filed a lawsuit that the government characterizes as “frivolous” against one of the IRS investigators and allegedly lied about making payments in the millions to the individuals investigating them. The original indictment claimed that they were allegedly marketing an illegal tax avoidance program. They were barred back in 2006 from selling the program.
Well, last year’s Tax Offender of the Year attempted to arrest his judge. That wasn’t much of a success. Today we had stories about impersonating an IRS employee and allegedly filing false liens against IRS employees. The Dutsons were already on notice that their activities were being scrutinized. If they committed these acts (at this point in time it’s only an allegation) they are definitely in the running for the 2009 Tax Offender of the Year crown.
In the Sabo story, I’m curious about how he got caught. Presumably, someone double-checked the clerk’s work and realized that the lien shouldn’t have been removed — but does that happen every time, or do people like Sabo really get away with this stuff?
When liens are removed a copy of the removal is sent to the individual or entity that filed the lien. The IRS would get a copy, and I’m sure whoever processes lien removals at the IRS would wonder why the lien was removed, and who this phantom IRS agent was.
This was a Bozo scheme destined to fail.