PHYSICIAN AND HUSBAND SENTENCED TO IMPRISONMENT
FOR FILING FALSE INCOME TAX RETURNS

Greenbelt, Maryland - Thomas M. DiBiagio, the United States Attorney for the District of Maryland, Vicki S. Duane, Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service (Criminal Investigations) and Martin S. Malarkey III, Territory Manager of the Internal Revenue Small Business/Self Employed Division; Lynne A. Hunt, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation ; Michael E. Little, Regional Inspector General, Department of Health and Human Services; and Joseph A. McMillan, Special Agent in Charge, Mid-Atlantic Region, Defense Criminal Investigative Services (DCIS) announced that on March 4, 2002, United States District Judge Alexander Williams Jr. sentenced Dr. Sakiliba Mines, age 49, of Garland Avenue in Silver Spring, Maryland to 21 months imprisonment following his conviction on federal income tax charges. Judge Williams also sentenced Dr. Mines' husband, Charles E. Mines Jr., age 52, of Silver Spring, Maryland to 21 months in prison for the same offenses. The Mines were convicted of the tax charges following a jury trial in federal court in Greenbelt, Maryland in November 2001.

Dr. Mines was a physician licensed to practice medicine in the District of Columbia and Maryland. Beginning it at least 1991, Dr. Mines practiced medicine as "Dupont Medical Associates," (DMA), a family medical practice located in Washington D.C. Her husband, Charles Mines, was the Chief Executive Officer for Dupont Medical Associates.

The evidence at trial demonstrated that Dr. and Mr. Mines knowingly and willfully failed to file income tax returns in 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995 and 1998 even though both drew separate, regular paychecks from DMA. Dr. Mines and Mr. Mines did not timely file for tax year 1996 but submitted a return on May 30, 1998 – two days after federal agents executed a federal search warrant at their place of business. Moreover, evidence at trial showed the return to be inaccurate. The tax return filed for tax year 1997 was false in several material aspects though only Charles Mines was charged with the falsity as the primary unreported income involved a separate business he operated known as Alert.

In reconstructing the Mines' personal and corporate tax returns, the IRS did a "bank deposit" analysis of the Mines' personal finances and of DMA. Among the evidence introduced at trial, the government introduced testimony from civil litigation brought by the United States against Dr. Mines in 1996 based on a number of student loans for medical school which Dr. Mines had defaulted on and for which a judgment remains outstanding in an amount close to $1 million. Dr. Mines also defaulted on student scholarship obligations which she was required to repay with service to indigent areas within the United States but never did.

With regard to the IRS testimony, the jury heard about the "reconstruction" of the Mines' tax situation from 1992 through 1998. Though Dr. Mines earned income in 1990 and 1991 while she worked for a private physician, the IRS was not able to complete the calculation of tax loss for those two years because bank records were not available. However, beginning in 1992, the IRS could calculate the tax loss as a result of Dr. and Mr. Mines' failure to file income tax returns in 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995 and 1998. The statute of limitations prohibited substantive counts for tax years 1992 and 1993. The IRS also "re-calculated" the 1996 and 1997 taxes because both returns were false.

According to the analysis of the IRS, the Mines owed at least $105,654 in personal income taxes. This is the most "accurate determination" of the "tax loss" based on the bank deposit analysis. In fact, the jury heard testimony about the 1990 and 1991 income earned by Dr. Mines (which was paid in the name of her husband's company "Alert") and the fact that DMA regularly received "cash" through "co-pays" and patient payments that were never deposited in a bank account and therefore never captured by the IRS in its analysis. In addition, the corporation, Dupont Medical Associates, which has been operating since at least 1991, had never filed corporate income tax returns and owes at least approximately $184,415 in back taxes for tax years 1994 through 1998 based on gross deposits of close to $2.7 million in insurance company payments for services rendered by Dr. Mines.

In addition to the tax charges, Dr. Mines had been charged in the federal Indictment with health care fraud based on charging the insurance companies for services at a higher level code of service than was actually provided – a practice known as "upcoding." The jury acquitted Dr. Mines on the health care fraud charges.

In addition to the above-mentioned entities, the Office of Professional Management, Office of Inspector General assisted in the investigation.