ATTORNEY PLEADS GUILTY TO FILING FALSE TAX RETURNS

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Assistant Attorney General Christopher A. Wray of the Criminal Division announced that attorney Milton D. Schierland has pleaded guilty at a federal court in Green Bay, Wisconsin, to a charge of filing a false tax return.

Schierland, 47, of Oshkosh, Wisconsin, entered the plea today before the Honorable William Griesbach, United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, Green Bay Branch. Schierland pleaded guilty to a single count of filing a false tax return, in violation of Title 26, United States Code, Section 7206(1). Judge Griesbach scheduled sentencing for Sept. 2, 2004.

Milton Schierland was an attorney and the sole proprietor of the Schierland Law Office in Neenah, Wisconsin. He engaged in a general practice, representing clients in both civil and criminal cases. Schierland maintained a ledger that purported to contain a list of the fees that he received from clients and his business expenses. Plea documents state that from 1997 through 2000, Schierland caused over 30 fee payments that he had received from clients to be understated in or omitted from the ledger. Therefore, as Schierland knew, the ledger materially understated the income he had earned. Nevertheless, Schierland used the information recorded in the ledger to determine the gross receipts that he reported on the federal income tax returns that he filed for the tax years from 1997 through 2000. As a result, Schierland failed to report $157,813.88 in gross receipts and failed to pay $53,488.00 in taxes.

The maximum penalty for filing a false tax return is three years in prison and a fine of $250,000.

As part of his plea agreement, Schierland has cooperated in the government’s investigation of Joseph Paulus, the former elected District Attorney of Winnebago County who accepted bribes to provide concessions to defendants in 22 criminal and traffic cases. Paulus pleaded guilty on April 26 to use of the mail and interstate facilities to promote bribery and filing a false tax return.

The United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Wisconsin is recused in this matter. This case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorneys Howard Sklamberg and Noah Bookbinder of the Public Integrity Section, headed by Section Chief Noel L. Hillman, and is the product of a lengthy investigation conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Criminal Investigations Division of the Internal Revenue Service.

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