SOUTH CAROLINA MAN TO SERVE THREE YEARS IN PRISON FOR TAX CRIMES

Defendants Allegedly Counseled Use of Trusts to Hide Income and Assets from IRS

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Eileen J. O’Connor, Assistant Attorney General for the Tax Division and Nancy Jardini, Chief, Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation, announced today that at the federal courthouse in Charleston, South Carolina, U.S. District Judge David C. Norton sentenced Nathaniel Green to 36 months imprisonment, to be followed by three years supervised release. Green also must pay $91,027 as restitution to the IRS. On October 14, 2004, following a three-day jury trial, Mr. Green was convicted of obstruction of justice, three counts of filing fraudulent tax documents, and five counts of assisting others in the preparation and filing of fraudulent documents.

“Criminals who retaliate against judges, prosecutors, agents and witnesses will be brought to justice,” said Eileen J. O’Connor, Assistant Attorney General for the Tax Division. “The Department of Justice and the Internal Revenue Service will vigorously protect the integrity of the federal tax system.”

According to the indictment and the evidence introduced at trial, on December 29, 1998, Mr. Green, of Summerville, South Carolina, filed a fraudulent 1997 Estate and Trust Tax Return (IRS Form 1041), on which he claimed a full refund of $99,929 in taxes he falsely claimed he had paid to the IRS on behalf of the Nathaniel and Janette Green Trust. In fact, Mr. Green paid no money to the IRS on behalf of that trust. The IRS erroneously paid the refund.

After discovering the error, the IRS took steps to recover the funds. Mr. Green attempted to conceal the monies by giving them to another person for deposit into that person’s bank account. The IRS then began levying Mr. Green’s Social Security disability payments and his wife’s wages to recover the funds.

Shortly thereafter, Mr. Green filed bogus IRS Forms 8300 to harass people who were investigating and/or assisting the IRS in getting the money back. The victims included an IRS agent and the accountant and pastor of a church where Green’s wife worked. The IRS Forms 8300 falsely reported that the pastor and others had engaged in suspicious transactions involving more than $10,000 in cash. In April 2001, Mr. Green also helped another person charged with tax crimes to file IRS Forms 8300, which fraudulently claimed that the Federal Magistrate Judge hearing that case and the U.S. Attorney handling the prosecution had engaged in suspicious transactions involving more than $10,000 in cash.

Judge Norton also sentenced Mr. Green’s co-defendant, Anthony Myers, to five years probation and ordered him to pay $45,845 in restitution to the IRS. Mr. Myers had pleaded guilty to a charge of filing a fraudulent tax return (26 U.S.C. § 7206(1)).

Assistant Attorney General O’Connor thanked Tax Division Trial Attorneys M. Kendall Day and Patrick Pericak, who prosecuted the case. She also thanked the special agents of the Internal Revenue Service whose assistance was essential to the successful investigation and prosecution of the case.

Additional information about the Justice Department’ts Tax Division and its enforcement efforts may be found at wwww.usdoj.gov/tax.

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