Today the Tenth Circuit upheld a Kansas lawyer’s conviction for tax evasion, rejecting his arguments that insufficient evidence was presented to prove an “affirmative act” designed to conceal or mislead, and insufficient evidence to prove willfulness.
Here the defendant named someone else as the owner of his law firm in an effort to prevent the IRS from seizing his assets, had the firm pay his personal expenses directly rather than paying him a salary, and then lied by telling the government that he wasn’t receiving compensation from the law firm.
The Tenth Circuit had little trouble affirming the convictions. Judge Paul Kelly wrote the opinion in United States v. Boisseau.
The lesson here is: Don’t do this.
