Anderson Arc Marches On

[Prof]

Anderson Arc claims two more victims (or, can you believe that an MD and an RN bought into this crap?)

A former San Antonio doctor and nurse caught up in a fraudulent offshore investment scheme were sentenced Monday to two years of probation for filing a false tax return.

Daniel Luczkow, 44, and his wife, Mary, 42, worked in the emergency room at Baptist Health System in the late 1990s before moving to Massachusetts.

The couple were convicted at a trial in December 2008 on a single felony charge of filing a false tax return for tax year 2000, but were acquitted of three other charges stemming from the sham investment scheme that drew in more than 240 people.

The Luczkows begged Senior U.S. District Judge W. Royal Furgeson for mercy, while prosecutors Bill Harris and Tracy Gostyla sought a prison term within the recommended guidelines of 15-21 months.

Prosecutors said at trial that the couple had earned $1 million between 1997 and 2000, but had paid only $1,721 in taxes. Furgeson found the tax loss was more than $94,000.

The Luczkows said they got into the program while they were young and at a vulnerable time in their lives, at the advice of trustworthy people. Daniel Luczkow was just starting his ER career, and his wife was expecting one of their three children.

Daniel Luczkow said a doctor friend told him about a program run by Seattle-based Anderson Ark & Associates, whose principals were later sent to prison because its practices used schemes that hid money from the Internal Revenue Service in Costa Rica.

“I trained to be an ER doctor,” Daniel Luczkow said. “It's not the field of medicine you go into to get wealthy.”

The Luczkows said a string of certified public accountants, lawyers and former IRS employees working for the program vouched it was legal.

“They conned us,” Daniel Luczkow told the judge, who agreed the couple had been victimized.

“This is not about greed,” cried Mary Luczkow, a San Antonio native. “They want to paint us that we're a rich doctor and nurse, but we're not.”

Their lawyers, Charles Muller and Van Hilley, said the couple has been through a lot: They borrowed from relatives to pay the taxes they owed (before being indicted); they face foreclosure; Mary Luczkow lost her nursing license; the state of Texas revoked Daniel Luczkow's medical license and he could lose his license in Massachusetts.

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_ ... eturn.html

[Pottapaug1938]

[quote="Prof"]Anderson Ark claims two more victims (or, can you believe that an MD and an RN bought into this crap?)

Yes, I can. I've known or heard of more than a few people who hold advanced degrees or who got bachelor's degrees with a high GPA and yet are colossally stupid in many ways....