{"id":18374,"date":"2011-06-24T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-06-24T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/getirshelp.com\/blog\/guilty-tax-crimes\/"},"modified":"2026-07-27T14:28:57","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T14:28:57","slug":"guilty-tax-crimes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/getirshelp.com\/blog\/guilty-tax-crimes\/","title":{"rendered":"Guilty of Tax Crimes"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you've got an IRS letter on your desk right now, you have a decision to make, and the clock matters. I'm Darrin Mish. I've spent 32 years helping people with exactly this kind of situation. Here's what you should do.<\/p>\n

Brooklyn Ophthalmologist Guilty<\/p>\n

Brooklyn Ophthalmologist Mark S. Hughes was charged after failing to pay income tax<\/a> of more than $800,000 between 2003 and 2009. \u00a0He agreed to enter a guilty plea to charges of tax evasion and obstruction of a tax audit.<\/a> \u00a0Hughes filed an agreement in US District Court in Boston to plead guilty to both charges, according to Christina DiIorio-Sterling, spokeswoman for the office of US Attorney Carmen Ortiz.<\/p>\n

Hughes allegedly avoided paying taxes by diverting his earnings from the Stoneham Office of Group Practice where he worked as a practicing ophthalmologist to Omega Consulting Group Inc., a consulting firm that he owned. \u00a0He allegedly made more than $2 million in contributions to a pension benefit plan through Omega while already participating in a retirement program through Group Practice. \u00a0Although he knew the $2 million was taxable, he did not pay any taxes on the income.
\nIn 2008, when the IRS launched an audit, Hughes allegedly provided false information about Omega\u2019s business to foil the audit, revealed Ortiz\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

Hughes may be jailed for up to 5 years for tax<\/a> evasion and up to 3 years for obstruction of a tax audit. \u00a0Both crimes also carry possible fines and supervised releases. \u00a0But after Hughes\u2019 guilty plea, the US Attorney\u2019s office is likely to recommend a shorter sentence.<\/p>\n

Pickerington Woman Guilty<\/p>\n

Leslie K. Todd of Pickerington pleaded guilty before US Magistrate Judge Norah McCann King to charges of identity theft and making false claims from the IRS. \u00a0She faces up to 15 years in jail and $250,000 in fines. \u00a0Besides that, the plea agreement also demands estitution to the IRS of $89,452.<\/p>\n

Todd is alleged to have made 59 false claims for tax refunds between February 2008 and March 2009 using names of inmates who were detained in Franklin County. \u00a0She also made up information regarding the employer, wage and tax withholding for these inmates on the tax return forms she filed. \u00a0Then she opened online bank accounts and directed the false tax refunds to be transferred electronically into these accounts.<\/p>\n

To access the funds in these accounts, Todd obtained prepaid debit cards or ATM card from the bank. \u00a0By these means, Todd was alleged to have defrauded the IRS of about $118,969. \u00a0But her scheme was discovered by the IRS Scheme Development Center in the Cincinnati Service Center.
\nThe case was being prosecuted by Assistant US Attorney Brenda Shoemaker.<\/p>\n

Check out more Tax News<\/a> stories by clicking that link.<\/p>\n

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If you've got an IRS letter on your desk right now, you have a decision to make, and the clock matters. I'm Darrin Mish. I've spent 32 years helping people with exactly this kind of situation. Here's what you should do. Brooklyn Ophthalmologist Guilty Brooklyn Ophthalmologist Mark S. Hughes was charged after failing to pay […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[591],"tags":[28],"class_list":["post-18374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-irs-news","tag-irs-audit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/getirshelp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/getirshelp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/getirshelp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/getirshelp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/getirshelp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18374"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/getirshelp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18374\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28896,"href":"https:\/\/getirshelp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18374\/revisions\/28896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/getirshelp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/getirshelp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/getirshelp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}