ATHENS, GA DOCTOR CONVICTED OF TAX EVASION

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Assistant Attorney General for the Tax Division Eileen J. O'Connor announced today that a jury convicted Dr. Bradford G. Brown, a resident of Athens, Ga., of two counts of tax evasion. The trial began on March 10, 2003, before U.S. District Judge Hugh Lawson.

Dr. Brown was indicted in May 2002 on charges of willfully attempting to evade and defeat a large part of his income tax due and owing to the United States in 1994 and 1995.

At trial, the government proved that in 1994 and 1995, Dr. Brown evaded income taxes on more than $1.5 million by failing to deposit all medical receipts into his business account, so that those receipts could be recorded as income by his accountant. Instead, he concealed taxable income in bank accounts never disclosed to his accountant, thus breaching their explicit agreement that his income, for purposes of reporting it on his tax returns, would be derived from an analysis of bank deposits made into specific accounts.

According to the trial evidence, Dr. Brown drew upon the undisclosed medical receipts for his personal use. He used the unreported income to purchase numerous pieces of real estate, a radio station, a 1995 BMW convertible and various other personal assets. The resulting tax loss to the government was more than $500,000.

"Americans who pay their taxes can be assured that those who do not will be held accountable," said Assistant Attorney General O'Connor.

The indictment charged that Dr. Brown also evaded his taxes by failing to file personal income tax returns for 1994 and 1995, in addition to committing numerous affirmative acts of evasion designed to conceal his income from the Internal Revenue Service.

In addition, evidence was presented at trial that Dr. Brown initiated his scheme in 1993 when he filed a false Form 1040 that omitted over $114,000 of medical receipts. The scheme also included the 1996-2001 tax years, when he delinquently filed returns for those years that included a total tax liability in excess of $1 million. For the 1994-2001 tax years, he is credited with paying only $4,192 of his total tax liability.

Internal Revenue Service special agents conducted the investigation. Tax Division trial attorneys Glenn A. Makl and Jennifer Peru Burnett prosecuted the case.

Anyone who has information about suspected tax fraud should report it to the Internal Revenue Service tip line at 1-800-829-0433. For copies of documents filed in this case and for information on other tax scam enforcement actions, go online to http://www.usdoj.gov/tax/.

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