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Urbana, IL: Jan Paul Miller, United States Attorney for
the Central District of Illinois, announced that T. David Ring, a/k/a
David Ring, age 52, 601 E. Washington Avenue, Effingham, Illinois, was
sentenced today by U.S. District Court Judge Michael M. McCuskey in Urbana,
Illinois to serve two years probation and pay a fine of $30,000. Ring
was also ordered to cooperate with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS)
in a final determination of his back taxes.
Ring pled guilty July 30, 2002, to filing a false tax return for the 1993
tax year. Ring admitted that the return he filed failed to report approximately
$571,650 of total income. As part of the plea, Ring paid $243,000 in back
taxes owed and he agreed to cooperate with the government in its prosecution
of Paul E. Palmer.
Palmer, a former Effingham businessman, was sentenced May 29, 2003, to
serve 108 months in prison, pay a fine of $150,000 and restitution to
the IRS in the amount of $1,369,662 for a conspiracy to defraud the IRS.
According to evidence presented at Palmer's trial and sentencing hearing,
Palmer obtained thousands of dollars from clients who wished to use Palmer's
system of "trusts" to hide income from the IRS. Palmer's "trusts"
were an elaborate scheme to make it appear that taxable income was transferred
to entities other than Palmer's clients. Clients took deductions on income
tax returns for false services which were purportedly performed by the
"trusts," or the clients reported false distributions to entities
purportedly existing outside the United States.
At Palmer's sentencing hearing, Ring explained that Palmer had suggested
that money could be hidden from the IRS in a series of "trusts."
Ring admitted he paid Palmer $7,200 in 1993 to purchase "trusts"
from Palmer. Ring also admitted that greed caused him to get involved
with Palmer's trust system and to hide money from the IRS.
At Ring's sentencing, Judge McCuskey noted that Ring's testimony was reliable
and believable. Judge McCuskey also commented several times that Ring
had admitted his greed and that for a greedy man, a fine of $30,000 would
hurt more than any other possible sentence.
Dwight D. Larson, a/k/a Dennis Larson, formerly of Charleston, Illinois
was convicted with Paul E. Palmer of conspiring to defraud the Internal
Revenue Service (IRS). Larson pled guilty on January 8, 2002, and was
sentenced to serve 55 months in prison.
The case was investigated by the Criminal Investigation Division of the
Internal Revenue Service.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Hilary W.
Frooman and John J. Kaleba of the Department of Justice, Tax Division.
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