Chiropractor / ARL client guilty on three failure to file co

[Demosthenes]

Thursday, February 21, 2008 - 12:23 PM EST
Chiropractor guilty in tax evasion scheme
Business First of Buffalo - by Annemarie Franczyk Business First
An East Aurora chiropractor has been found guilty in federal court for failing to file individual tax returns in a tax evasion scheme that involved actor Wesley Snipes.
John Weisberg was found guilty in federal court in Buffalo on Feb. 14 on three counts of willfully failing to file tax returns for 2000, 2001 and 2003. The jury was unable to reach a verdict for a similar charge involving 2002 tax returns.
Each count of conviction is punishable by a maximum term of one year imprisonment, one year of supervised release, a $25,000 fine and the costs of prosecution, according to the Internal Revenue Service.
Evidence introduced during the trial showed that in 1997 Weisberg became a member-client of a Florida-based tax protest group known as American Rights Litigators that promotes multiple tax fraud schemes. Ringleader Eddie Ray Kahn was convicted of felony charges on Feb. 1 in federal court in Florida in a trial that included Snipes. Snipes was acquitted of charges that he meant to cheat the government, but he was convicted on three misdemeanor counts of failing to file income tax returns. He is expected to be sentenced on April 24.
According to the IRS, Weisberg purchased a service by which ARL-affiliated lawyers and accountants responded to IRS notices seeking his returns. The letters to the IRS identified legal reasons why the defendant was not required to file.
At trial, Weisberg claimed that he had relied upon the legal and accounting advice of ARL in not filing returns, as well as the IRS's failure to respond to ARL's claims and requests over the course of seven years. The evidence at trial showed that Weisberg was advised of his legal duty to file returns by the IRS and his Buffalo-area accountants and attorneys and that he used ARL as a means to obstruct the IRS. Evidence further showed that he failed to pay $144,000 in federal income and self-employment taxes he owed between 1995 and 2003.
The investigation was conducted by IRS Criminal Investigation Special Agents in Buffalo, and prosecuted by Department of Justice trial attorneys based in Washington.