In a sentencing memorandum filed Wednesday in U. S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri, Assistant U. S. Attorney Steven Mohlhenrich said that Brian Ellefsen's claim that he should get a lighter sentence because he voluntarily paid $480,000 in back taxes should be disregarded, since he did not make the payment until after he learned he was under criminal investigation.
"Defendant Mark Ellefsen did not pay a dime of restitution. In 2005 and 2006, after being informed of the grand jury investigation, and in an attempt to avoid indictment, Brian Ellefsen filed amended personal returns which partially acknowledged the fact that he had evaded taxes
for the years 1997 through 2002. Defendant Brian Ellefsen attempted to buy his way out of a crime."
Mohlhenrich noted that Brian and Mark Ellefsen had been warned time after time by various persons that the offshore account scheme in which they were participating was illegal.
"Nonetheless, Defendants made the decision to use, and continue to use, the Aegis trust system to hide over a million dollars from
the IRS."
4 comments:
My question is- why shouldn't we hold the same standards to government officials who don't pay their taxes such as Geithner or Tom Daschel? Or such celebrities as Pam Anderson or Nick Cage? Who are these people who think they are above the law?
Maybe because they pay their taxes??? In those cases, I'm not sure that criminal intent is there…and intent is very important here.
About the Ellefsen case, I can't believe they are going after the accountant brother with the same charges. Unless he is the one who filed the tax returns….and if that is the case, then he is very much accountable. Hmmm. Of course he filed the returns.
Oh, hang them all. Even the celebrities!!!!
There's no doubt about Geithner's criminal intent: the IMF, being an international institution, doesn't withhold FICA but does reimburse its US employees for it. To get that reimbursement you have to sign a document acknowledging you know what's going on and will pay your tax.
So basically he didn't pay his FICA tax even while getting paid by the IMF for paying it.
When he got audited he paid for 2003-4 but he didn't pay for 2001-2 until Obama told him he was in the running for Treasury Secretary. This is who the head of the IRS reports to.
I'm pretty sure Daschle made honest mistakes in a couple of areas but his comments WRT to the free limousine and chauffeur provided to him makes it clear he knew he was cheating WRT to them and only paid up when he was under consideration for the HHS seat.
His real crime, what caused him to withdraw from consideration, was drawing attention to how retiring from "a lifetime of public service" all too often results in "earning" millions of dollars a year afterwords....
And yes, it's very clear these people are above the law.
I’ve noticed how the IRS only tries to send small business owners to jail. When’s the last time the head of large corporation was criminally prosecuted? Can they be too big to go to jail just like they are too big to fail?
Check out this story and compare it to this case: http://news.yahoo.com/video/business-15749628/companies-save-billions-in-tax-dodges-19828009
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