A pair of reports from the South about elected officials (well, in one case former elected officials) in tax trouble. A longtime state representative allegedly took from charities while a former mayor may not have reported interest he received on personal loans.
Georgia State Representative Tyrone Brooks (D-Atlanta) is facing a 30-count indictment on mail, wire, and tax fraud. Representative Brooks is accused of misappropriating about $1 million of charitable donations from a charity he founded in 1990 and the Georgia Association of Black Elected Officials (GABEO). While Mr. Brooks accuses the government of going after him as retaliation in regards to his attempts at getting arrests in a 1946 lynching, the Department of Justice alleges that this has everything to do with Mr. Brooks using charities for his own gain.
Supposedly Mr. Brooks took the monies from the charity and moved them to his own bank account and paid personal expenses or just paid the personal expenses from the charity’s bank account. Additionally, he’s accused of naming individuals to the charity’s Board of Directors without their knowledge; of lying on solicitations for the charity; of telling the IRS that the charity had over $180,000 of various expenses while the year before he told the IRS that the expenses were under $9,000; of making false representations while soliciting for GABEO; and of filing false tax returns.
Meanwhile, the former mayor of Hialeah, Florida and his wife find themselves facing tax evasion charges. Julio and Raiza Robaina are accused of not reporting interest on more than $1 million of personal loans. The Robainas face several tax related charges, including filing a false tax return, conspiring to defraud the IRS, and lying to federal agents.
