There’s been plenty of tax fraud activity besides Wesley Snipes over the past few days. Here are some of the more interesting cases.
From Las Vegas comes the case of a truly Bozo plan. Keith Carthon created some phony W-2s, and then sent them to some friends who filed them. Of course, those returns all had refunds….The IRS figured out the scheme, and Mr. Carthon will spend 27 months at ClubFed. His co-defendant, Ramona Brock, will be tried in March for the same crimes.
From Dearborn, Michigan comes the story of someone who accurately reported part of his income. The trouble was that you’re supposed to report all of your income. Yousef Safiedine owned a gas station, and leased it to a relative. He reported about 40% of the rental income he received, $134,000 per year from 1999 – 2001. However, he didn’t report an additional $160,000 each year. Mr. Safiedine was found guilty of filing a false tax return signed under penalties of perjury. He’ll be sentenced in May, and is likely looking at a short stay at ClubFed.
From the political corruption files, we head to Gary, Indiana. Three politicians arranged for the Gary Historical and Cultural Society to take over a closed supermarket. So far, so good. They then arranged for the Historical and Cultural Society to sell the closed supermarket to the Gary Urban and Enterprise Association for $200,000. That doesn’t sound good, but the transaction was likely legal. And it sounds worse when the politicians kept $150,000 as a “finder’s fee.” And it got much worse for them when they didn’t report the $150,000 on their tax returns and got caught, tried, and convicted. Will Smith, Jr. received 15 months at ClubFed, Roosevelt Powell got 37 months, and Willie Harris got 55 months.
Hopefully, you won’t follow in these individuals’ crooked footsteps. For ClubFed isn’t much fun.