Fort Smith Chiropractor Pleads Guilty to Federal Tax Crime

                An Arkansas chiropractor pleaded guilty today in the U.S. District Court in the Western District of Arkansas to corruptly endeavoring to obstruct and impede the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), announced U.S. Attorney Conner Eldridge of the Western District of Arkansas and Acting Assistant Attorney General Caroline D. Ciraolo of the Justice Department’s Tax Division. He was previously convicted of federal tax crimes and sentenced to prison.

                According to court documents, Philip Roberts, 60, of Fort Smith, Arkansas, filed a series of false and fraudulent documents with the IRS in an effort to obstruct or impede the due administration of the internal revenue laws, including filing false financial instruments that claimed millions of dollars of transactions with both the Secretary of the Treasury and the IRS Commissioner, and filing IRS forms that falsely reported payments. In 2000, after a jury trial, Roberts was convicted of two counts of willfully failing to file federal income tax returns and sentenced to serve 16 months in federal prison.

                Roberts’ sentencing hearing has not been scheduled yet before the Honorable U.S. District Judge Timothy L. Brooks of the Western District of Arkansas. Roberts faces a statutory maximum sentence of three years in prison, one year of supervised release and a $250,000 fine for obstructing and impeding the IRS.

                U.S. Attorney Eldridge and Acting Assistant Attorney General Ciraolo commended special agents of the IRS and the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, who investigated the case, as well as Trial Attorneys Robert Kemins and David Zisserson of the Tax Division and Assistant U.S. Attorney Kimberly Davis of the Western District of Arkansas, who are prosecuting the case.