DOCTOR SENTENCED TO 41 MONTHS IN PRISON FOR TAX EVASION

Defendant also must pay restitution to the Internal Revenue Service

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Assistant Attorney General for the Tax Division Eileen J. O'Connor announced that yesterday U.S. District Judge Hugh Lawson sentenced Dr. Bradford G. Brown, a resident of Athens, Ga., to serve 41 months in federal prison for tax evasion. Brown was convicted by a jury of two counts of tax evasion March 13, 2003.

Brown was indicted in May 2002 on charges of willfully attempting to evade and defeat a large portion of his income tax liabilities for the 1994 and 1995 tax years. At trial, the government introduced evidence that Brown, during the 1994 and 1995 tax years, evaded income taxes on more than $1.2 million of income by failing to deposit all of his medical receipts into his business account. Instead, he deposited income into bank accounts which he never disclosed to his accountant, thus breaching their explicit agreement that all of his income would be deposited into his business bank account for purposes of computing his income. Evidence introduced in court showed that Brown's scheme included the 1996-2001 tax years when he delinquently filed tax returns for these years that included a total tax liability in excess of $1 million while only being credited by the Internal Revenue Service with paying $4,192 of his total tax liability for the 1994-2001 tax years.

In addition to his prison sentence, Brown was ordered to pay a $40,000 fine and make restitution to the IRS in excess of $3 million.

IRS 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.