A Pennsylvania man pleaded guilty to one count of tax evasion Tuesday in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia after using cash from two Maine companies in an attempt to dodge paying personal income tax, according to the Department of Justice.
Stephen W. Thomas of York, Pa., was arrested in April after a federal grand jury in Washington returned a three-count indictment, which states that Thomas did not file individual income tax returns from 2005 through 2007.
According to court records, Thomas formed multiple companies in the District of Columbia between 2002 and 2004. The name of each entity contained the acronym ECG, which stands for ESOP Capital Group. ESOP is an acronym for employee stock ownership plan. Thomas claimed the capital group offered financial, business and other management services to companies interested in creating employee stock ownership plans, according to the indictment.
In 2005 and 2006, Thomas contracted to provide these services to two Maine companies. The IRS and Department of Justice have not released the names of the businesses.
During his plea, Thomas admitted that he had concealed his income by moving earnings from the Maine companies into bank accounts using his wife’s name and titling his primary residence in her name.
He withdrew cash weekly — totaling more than $400,000 — using cashier’s checks between 2005 and 2007, according to court documents.
Thomas also admitted that he failed to report at least $573,785 in income during that two-year span. In total, his tax evasion schemes resulted in a tax loss to the IRS of at least $154,362, according to the IRS.
Thomas faces a maximum five-year prison sentence and a fine up to $250,000. U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, who presided over the case, set a sentencing date of Dec. 3.
Probably a Republican and probably related to Mitt Romney.
This isn’t news. Real news would be getting the trillions the rich, like Romney, have hidden just off-shore in the Bahama’s, Caymen Islands and Switzerland. It’s currently estimated, by their own admissions, at 32 trillion dollars. A percentage of that would immediately pay off the entire national debt and give every American $100,000 a year (mataphorically speaking) toward health, housing, education, public safety and security. Everyone knows they’re hoarding and refusing their responsibilities toward their community … the people of these United States, who gave their lives in service to these businesses and this country. No. This is not news. It is evidence of misapplied IRS resources and our Court’s valuable time. The IRS and the Courts should, before investigating and prosecuting these small-timers and wasting any more time, go after the “big timers” of which Madoff, Abramoff, Lehman Brothers and Stearns are just the tip of the preverbial ice berg. Time is precious, times are hard, make every shot count. Don’t waste our time or yours with small game. Go for the “big game” … all the rest will fall in line once THAT EXAMPLE and precedent has been established. Otherwise, by letting these ponzi schemers have free reign only tells the rest of us that the law does not apply equally as between the rich and everyone else and justice is NOT blind … it prosecutes the poorer (those less than millionaires) and turns a blind eye on the billionaires, like the fraudster Trump, who are manipulating and gaming our system of government and the markets for outrageous personal profit, with no sense of social responsibility. Where are President Carter’s 1970’s windfall profits taxes for the oil industry, for Wall streeters, bankters like Chase, Morgan Stanley, Citibank, TD, and the other Bank of London and Rothchild fronts? Sarah Palin is right, this term, the President needs to “grow a big stick” and use it.
He should have gone to one of those place that promises to allow you to pay pennies on the dollar. He would have been in less hot water and still have been rich.