EVADING INCOME TAXES NETS DEFENDANT A PRISON TERM

(HOUSTON) – A prison term is the cost of evading income taxes, United States Attorney Jose Angel Moreno and Internal Revenue Service Special Agent in Charge Rodney E. Clarke announced today.

United States District Court Judge David Hittner sentenced Arnold A. Salinas to 12 months and a day in federal prison without parole for tax evasion and ordered restitution in the amount of $113,966 be paid to the IRS. Salinas has already paid $100,000 of the restitution to date. Salinas must also serve a three year term of supervised release following the completion of his prison term.

According to the plea agreement filed in the record of the case, Salinas failed to timely file his U.S. Individual Income Tax Returns and to timely pay his federal income taxes for years 2000 through 2004. Salinas admitted he attempted to evade his income taxes for 2004 by falsely claiming 30 exemption allowances to which he was not entitled on a W-4 form previously filed with his employer. The false W-4 form caused Salinas’s employer to reduce the amount of federal income taxes withheld from Salinas’s wages in 2004. Salinas also admitted that in 2004 he attempted to conceal income from the IRS by taking funds from a business account to pay personal expenses. 
   
This case was prosecuted by Charles J. Escher of the Houston office and was investigated by the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division.

 

 

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