NEWS RELEASE
UNITED STATES ATTORNEY'S OFFICE
WESTERN DISTRICT OF VIRGINIA
John L. Brownlee
United States Attorney
Patricia A. Grisetti
Media Contact
Thomas B. Mason Building
105 Franklin Rd., S.W.
Roanoke, Virginia 24011
(540) 857-2250
FAX (540) 857-2180
February 14, 2002
United States Attorney John L. Brownlee announced today that JAMES G.
SPRINKEL, 55, of Broadway, pleaded guilty in United States District
Court in Abingdon, to one count of making a false statement to the Internal
Revenue Service.
According to court records and information provided to the court at the guilty plea hearing, during October 1995 through January 1996, SPRINKEL, who is a Certified Public Accountant with an office in Harrisonburg, assisted Dr. William J. Streett, a New Market veterinarian, and his wife Sharon L. Streett, in an audit of the Streetts' income tax returns for 1992-94, conducted by an IRS Revenue Agent from the IRS office in Staunton. During discussions with the IRS Agent in November 1995, SPRINKEL falsely denied that he had previously prepared an amended 1992 income tax return that reported additional income and taxes owed by the Streetts. This amended return was never filed with the IRS. In January 1996, SPRINKEL was asked to provide the IRS Agent with a cash flow statement he had previously prepared for the Streetts concerning their income for 1993. Before doing so, SPRINKEL altered the statement to conceal figures for 1992 that would have revealed the additional income and taxes owed by the Streetts as reflected on the unfiled 1992 amended tax return.
A November 2000 trial against SPRINKEL and the Streetts for conspiracy to defraud the IRS ended in a hung jury. In that trial Dr. Streett was also charged with filing false income tax returns for 1992-94. SPRINKEL's guilty plea today will avoid a retrial of the earlier case which had been scheduled to begin in Harrisonburg on February 19. Sharon L. Streett pleaded guilty in November 2000, prior to the start of the earlier trial, to three counts of filing false income tax returns for 1992-94. Dr. Streett is scheduled to enter a guilty plea in Federal Court in Abingdon tomorrow. SPRINKEL is scheduled to be sentenced on May 3.
The case was investigated by the Roanoke office of the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation Division. Assistant United States Attorney Rick Mountcastle and Department of Justice, Tax Division, attorney Gregory Tortella were the prosecutors.
