Yet another TP Dentist sentenced

[Demosthenes]

Danville oral surgeon follows son to prison for tax scam
Henry K. Lee, Chronicle Staff Writer

Friday, August 17, 2007

(08-17) 14:35 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- A Danville oral surgeon will join his son, a dentist, in federal prison after they both defrauded the U.S. government in a tax-evasion scheme.

Dr. Leroy Albert Lewis, 73, will spend two years in prison and pay $909,527 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service, U.S. District Judge Susan Illston said during a hearing in San Francisco.

Lewis pleaded guilty in May to conspiring to defraud the federal government. He initially had been indicted on the conspiracy charge and four counts of tax evasion for failing to pay income tax from 1998 to 2001.

In February, Lewis' son, Roy Albert Lewis, a dentist, was sentenced to two years in prison for income-tax evasion and conspiring to defraud the government for hiding $300,000 over a 10-year period. Roy Lewis, 51, is in federal prison in Lompoc.

The elder Lewis admitted that he "employed a highly sophisticated scheme of moving money among domestic and international corporations in order to conceal income from the IRS," federal prosecutors said in court papers.

The IRS said the younger Lewis' medical practice paid bogus expenses to Tower Executive Resources, a Denver group that then deposited most of those funds in a secret offshore bank account that Lewis controlled, authorities said.

Leroy Lewis characterized his actions as a "foolish alliance with his son and other tax protesters," Michael Watling of the U.S. attorney's office wrote in a sentencing memorandum.

The oral surgeon had claimed that the name "Leroy A. Lewis" was a "legal fiction" and therefore he could not be convicted, Watling wrote. He also claimed that federal prosecutors were conspiring against him and that his own attorney had no authority to represent him, Watling said.

The doctor's attorney, Michael Semansky, wrote in court papers that his client had donated hours of pro bono work and had done charity and missionary work as an oral surgeon in Brazil and the Grand Turks.

Semansky said his client, "like a lot of professionals, suffered from hubris and greed." The defense attorney had urged Illston to sentence the doctor to no more than six months, saying a two-year prison sentence amounted to a 20-year sentence, "given his short life expectancy."

[.]

a two-year prison sentence amounted to a 20-year sentence

No, it amounts to a two year sentence.

John List, who killed his family and was caught about 20 years later, had it about right, he said he got his parole first, and now he gets to serve his (life) sentence.

This idiot walked free for between 6 and 9 years, and while he may die in prison, at least he doesn't face the virtual certainty that Irwin does.

the name "Leroy A. Lewis" was a "legal fiction"

Wouldn't that be Leroy A.: Lewis? Was this wonderful father/son team ever on Sooooey or did they think this crap up all by themselves?