Having returned from a trip to Connecticut, I needn’t have worried that the tax fraud artists would be missing. They’re out in force this morning.
First, from Clarksville, Tennessee comes a woman who had a bookkeeping business. She named it “Nunya Business.” I’m not sure that’s a great name, and it became less of a good name when she decided to try a new career as an embezzler. She managed to get $63,000 from her clients. She decided that one good crime deserved another, so she failed to report that income on her tax return. And she left off another $160,000 for good measure. She agreed to plead guilty, and she’ll likely be spending 30 months at ClubFed.
Meanwhile, the City of Brotherly Love has had its own corruption problems. Joseph Moderski, a Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania business consultant, will be spending 37 months at ClubFed. He got ensnared in a city hall corruption investigation. Earlier this year, he got 14 months for a “pay to play” scheme at Philadelphia’s airport. He pleaded guilty in July to defrauding the city and his ex-employer…and not paying $764,000 in taxes. Besides the jail time, he must make restitution of $1.3 million to the IRS.
Finally, in Florence, South Carolina, a doctor has probably learned that if you make up phony deductions and get caught, the jail you’re sentenced to is very real. Dr. Erik Dehlinger worked in an emergency room in Florence. He heard about Anderson’s Ark & Associates. They promised to make his tax liabilities disappear through phony expenses and false loan deductions. Instead of disappearing, his tax liabilities still exist, along with interest and penalties…and a probable fine and a short stay at ClubFed. Joe Kristan wrote in 2002, “If it sounds too good to be true, it almost always is.” I agree completely.