…for these individuals.
First up is Minish Mehta of South San Francisco. He’ll be spending 15 months at ClubFed. He ran a number of Bay Area parking lots and had a unique method of dealing with the cash collected. If the amount of the deposit were under $10,000, he’d deposit it in his personal account; if it were over $10,000, it went in the company account. In 1999 and 2000, those personal deposits totaled nearly $1 million. The IRS wasn’t pleased when they figured out Mehta’s scheme. Why $10,000 as the cutoff? That’s because no currency transaction report is required on deposits of less than $10,000. However, banks can make such a report if they suspect suspicious activity. The news report doesn’t indicate how the IRS found out.
Next is Ronald Isley, the Isley Brothers’ lead singer. He’s going to be at ClubFed for three years and will have to pay $3.1 million in back taxes. U.S. District Judge Dean Pregerson quoted in an AP Story (via the Washington Post), “The term serial tax avoider has been used. I think that’s appropriate.”
Charles E. Polk, Jr., a prominent St. Louis attorney, will have 46 months to think over his schemes while at ClubFed. Polk stole funds from the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District and evaded taxes according to this story. Former Attorney General John Ashcroft wrote a letter asking for leniency. The plea agreement (Polk agreed to plead guilty to two counts; in return, 21 counts were dismissed) stated that the maximum sentence would be 47 months. Perhaps the one month Judge Stephen Limbaugh didn’t sentence Polk for was a result of the letter….
Closer to home, John Archibald will be spending 15 weekends at the Pasadena city jail and will be on probation for five years. Archibald pleaded guilty last week to taking bribes and filing a false California tax return. Archibald took over $100,000 from subcontractors working at the Park LaBrea complex in Los Angeles according to this report. He’ll have to make restitution to Casden Properties, the owner of Park LaBrea, and the Franchise Tax Board.
And finally, surfer Sunny Garcia will get to enjoy the swells generated by Hurricane John. Garcia, who was found guilty of tax evasion earlier this year, had sentencing postponed until October 18th according to this story. (As an aside, how often do you think I’ll be able to link to the Global Surf News and be on topic?)
So as Labor Day weekend winds down, remember what happens when you illegally evade taxes. You either look over your shoulder for the rest of your life or you find yourself looking through bars.
