Pembroke Man Sentenced for Tax Evasion

A Pembroke, Mass., man was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Boston in connection with failing to pay taxes on more than $1.1 million he earned as a carpenter from 1998 to 2006. 

Theodore Hammond, Jr., 61, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV to six months in prison, one year of supervised release and ordered to pay the IRS restitution of $406,458. Hammond pleaded guilty in July 2015 to two counts of tax evasion and seven counts of subscribing to false tax returns.  

Hammond was a self-employed carpenter for many years.  From1998 to 2006, he earned $1.1 million, but failed to timely file federal income tax returns and, when he did file, he falsely reported zero income.

At sentencing, Hammond argued that he had based his conduct on information he learned from tax-defier websites, lectures, and books, such as those promoted by Irwin Schiff, who wrote The Great Income Tax Hoax: Why You Can Immediately Stop Paying This Illegally Enforced Tax, and Peter Hendrickson, who wrote Cracking the Code: The Fascinating Truth About Taxation in America.  Judge Saylor noted the importance of deterring others from believing the misguided and misleading theories promoted by individuals such as Schiff and Hendrickson, both of whom served federal prison sentences.

United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz; William P. Offord, Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation in Boston; and Robert E. O’Malley, Special Agent in Charge of the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, New York Field Division, made the announcement today.  The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Sandra S. Bower of Ortiz’s Economic Crimes Unit and Christine Wichers of Ortiz’s Civil Division.