Former ESPN Reporter Gets 11 Months for Evasion

Adrian K. Karsten, a former ESPN sportscaster and winner of a 1991 Emmy Award, was sentenced by a U.S. district judge in Wisconsin to 11 months in prison for tax evasion.

Karsten, who pleaded guilty to two counts of failing to file federal income tax returns for the years 2000 and 2002, was also sentenced to nine months of home confinement, which will include electronic monitoring, as part of his two-year probation.

During the two tax years in question, Karsten received more than $600,000 in income from ESPN, where he reported from the sidelines of football games and served as a writer-producer for SportsCenter.

By failing to file tax returns, Karsten did not pay federal income taxes totaling $167,000. Under the terms of his sentence, Karsten, who has now filed tax returns for the years in question, is required to cooperate with the IRS in the collection of these taxes as well as any penalties and interest.

Dry Cleaner Tried to Evade $325k in Taxes

The owner of two dry-cleaning establishments in Michigan was sentenced to 15 months in prison after he tried to evade paying about $325,000 in federal income taxes.

From 1996 to 1998, Riza Selenica, 38, who operated Euro Express in Birmingham and Southfield, Mich., accepted checks as payments from customers but then failed to deposit those checks in his business account, according to the government. Selenica instead deposited the checks into his personal account, attempting to conceal the income from the federal government.

During these years, Selenica filed false 1996, 1997 and 1998 federal income tax returns, claiming $0 gross income or, as on the 1998 return, showing gross income of $48,747 when his joint taxable income with his spouse during those years totaled more than $980,000. Total tax loss to the IRS was calculated at approximately $325,000.

N.J. H.R. Manager Gets 37 Months

A former human resources manager in Bayonne, N.J., who defrauded her employer of more than $350,000 and evaded paying taxes on the money, was sentenced today to 37 months in prison.

Laura Jean Buturla, 50, was also ordered to pay $354,434 in restitution to her former employer, Agip USA, a former New York City subsidiary of Agip International, an Italian multinational corporation. Buturla was formerly a human resources manager at the company. Among her responsibilities was to arrange payroll checks. Buturla issued unauthorized checks totaling in excess of $250,000 that were made out in her name and that she then cashed, according to government evidence.

Buturla also admitted that she filed a federal income tax return for the year 1999 in which she understated her income by about $100,000. The income tax owed was about $14,500.

Tax Fraud Promoters Get Prison Time

Five people associated with a tax fraud group known as “We the People” have been sentenced to federal prison for promoting bogus tax shelters that falsely promised to lower federal income taxes.

The leader of the operation, Lynne Meredith, 55, of Sunset Beach, Calif., was sentenced yesterday to 121 months in prison. A federal jury last year convicted Meredith of conspiracy, four counts of mail fraud, two counts of using a false social security number, making a false statement in a passport application and five counts of failing to file a tax return.

Meredith and her co-defendants — Gayle Bybee, 57, Gregory Paul Karl, 55, Teresa Manharth Giordano, 42, and Willie Watts, 46 — were sentenced in Los Angeles. In sentencing Meredith, U.S. District Judge Dean D. Pregerson said her ideas on tax laws were “delusional.”

Meredith wrote books, including How to Cook a Vulture and Vultures in Eagle’s Clothing, in which she falsely claimed that individuals could stop paying income taxes, stop their employers from withholding income taxes, and refuse to produce books and records to the IRS.

Calif. Divorce Attorney Found Guilty of Tax Evasion

Demetrious Eugenios, a divorce attorney in San Juan Bautista, Calif., was convicted of income tax evasion. After deliberating one and a half hours, the jury found that Eugenios willfully attempted to evade the payment of $613,126 in income tax due for the calendar years 1989 and 1991 to 1999.

The guilty verdict followed a six-day jury trial before U.S. District Court Judge Charles R. Breyer.

Eugenios, 58, was indicted by a federal grand jury on Sept. 30, 2003. He was charged with willfully attempting to evade the payment of $613,126 in income tax due for the calendar years 1989 and 1991 through 1999.

The government also alleged that Eugenios concealed his assets and income and provided false statements to the IRS.

For the years 1989 and 1991 through 1999, Eugenios reported gross income totaling $2,561,656 and income taxes totaling $654,724, of which he paid only $43,202.

However, during the execution of a search warrant on Eugenios residence, IRS agents discovered $42,575 in cash and $10,686 in gold and silver coins.

He faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each count.

Former Computer Executive Charged with Tax Crime

Atlanta resident Daniel Tunnell, 31, a former manager of Computer Associates Inc.’s Framingham, Mass., office was charged in federal court with filing false tax returns.

The information charges that Tunnell, who in 2001 and 2002 was the regional vice president in charge for Computer Associates, asked approximately eight Computer Associates employees whom he supervised to share with him a portion of their sales commissions.

The employees agreed and gave Tunnell shared commissions totaling about $51,063 in 2001 and $20,109 in 2002. Tunnell then did not report the income on his tax returns.

Mass. Businessman Charged with Income Tax Evasion

Paul Dembling, 49, of Needham, Mass., was charged with four counts of tax evasion. Prosecutors allege that, for calendar years 1997 to 2000, Dembling fraudulently claimed business expenses in connection with the Belmont wholesale seafood company Sinco Inc., where he was a part owner and employee, and claimed fictitious losses for a separate wholesale food company. The indictment charges that he evaded more than $86,000 in personal federal income taxes.

Ohio Attorney Charged with Tax Evasion

Joseph D. Weisberg, an attorney practicing in Toledo, Ohio, has been charged with tax evasion for allegedly evading $321,654 in income taxes he owed for 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1997, 1998, 1999, and 2001. Weisberg concealed his personal funds from the IRS, the indictment alleges. If convicted, the court will determine his sentence.