More Commonwealth Trust convictions

[Demosthenes]

3 guilty of tax evasion
A fourth person was acquitted.
By CAITLIN HEANEY
For the Daily Record/ Sunday News
Article Last Updated: 09/17/2008 06:11:57 AM EDT

A U.S. District Court jury has found a Hanover man and his two sons guilty of tax-evasion charges, according to documents filed in Pennsylvania's Middle District Court.

Avery L. Sollenberger and Wendell Sollenberger, both of the 300 block of Primrose Lane in Hanover, and Gary Sollenberger of the first block of Villa Vista Avenue in Berwick Township were found guilty last week of conspiracy to defraud the United States.

Avery Sollenberger's wife, Dena Sollenberger, also of Primrose Lane, was found not guilty.

The Sollenbergers were indicted in May 2007 and accused of using several "sham trusts" to hide assets since 1994, court documents state. The Sollenbergers sent money from Associated Dynamics, their house-framing business, and Bitterroot Rental Co., their real-estate business, to the trusts, according to documents.

The framing business made about $4.7 million between 1996 and 2004, and the real-estate business made almost $126,000 between 2001 and 2004, according to court documents.

Avery Sollenberger said Tuesday anything published about the verdict would violate his right to privacy under the Constitution. He denied wrongdoing and blamed "deception and lying" on the part of the U.S. Attorney's office for the verdict.

Authorities alleged the Sollenbergers transferred money from domestic bank accounts to a bank in Cyprus. The family then wired money back to the United States or used ATMs, according to court documents.

Gary and Wendell Sollenberger had not filed personal-income tax returns since 1995, and the family did not pay federal taxes on income received between 1996 to 1998 and 2000 to 2005, according to court documents.

Authorities alleged the framing business did not file tax returns for those same periods and said the real-estate business did not file tax returns or pay federal income taxes on its income.

Sollenberger and his sons each face up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, U.S. Attorney Martin Carlson said.

[wserra]

Avery Sollenberger said Tuesday anything published about the verdict would violate his right to privacy under the Constitution.

First time I've heard that. Let us know how it goes for you, wontcha, Avery?

[Paul]

Would that right to privacy be under a penumbra or an emanation? Because I think only 14th Amendment citizens qualify for penumbra rights, but they don't qualify for emanation rights.

[Demosthenes]

Posted on Sun, Sep. 21, 2008

Exton man gets prison for tax-evasion scheme

An Exton man was ordered Friday to spend 65 months in federal prison and pay restitution of $5.7 million for his role in an elaborate tax-evasion scheme, the U.S. Attorney's Office said in a news release.

Anthony Trimble, 59, was one of 11 defendants affiliated with Commonwealth Trust Co., a Texas business that sold false trusts to clients, encouraging them to transfer assets and dodge more than $10 million in federal taxes, the release said.

The leader of the conspiracy, John Michael Crim, 53, of Malta, was convicted by a jury in January and sentenced in May to spend eight years in prison and pay $17.2 million in restitution, court records said.

[Demosthenes]

Source: IRS

Pennsylvania Father and Sons Sentenced in Tax Fraud Scheme

On March 26, 2009, in Scranton, Pa., Wendall Sollenberger was sentenced to 42 months in prison and ordered to pay $1,274,615 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Last week, Avery Sollenberger, Wendall's father, was sentenced to 44 months in prison and Gary Sollenberger, Wendall's brother, was sentenced to 42 months in prison. In September 2008, a jury found Avery, Wendall, and Gary Sollenberger guilty of conspiracy to defraud the IRS. According to court documents, the Sollenbergers own and operate a house framing business in Hanover, Pennsylvania. Evidence introduced at trial stated that beginning in 1994, Wendall, Gary and Avery began to employ a deceptive scheme consisting of bogus trusts, a foreign corporation and an off-shore bank account in Cyprus to conceal assets from the IRS. The three men have not paid any income tax on their business earnings since 1994. During the trial, the government also introduced evidence of defendants expenditures including the purchase of a $100,000 race car, a $40,000 custom made motorcycle, a motor boat, gold, silver, rental properties, a second home in Altoona, Pennsylvania, and hunting trips to Idaho.