Ex-Cozen Lawyer Accused of Diverting Law Firm Fees Is Sentenced for Tax Evasion
A former real estate lawyer at Cozen O’Connor has been sentenced to 70 months in prison on tax charges after he was accused of diverting client fees to himself and failing to pay taxes on the income.
Charles Naselsky was sentenced on Tuesday, report the Legal Intelligencer and the Philadelphia Business Journal. He was accused of failing to report $365,000 in income in 2005 and 2005.
Naselsky was convicted in September of two counts of tax evasion, two counts of filing false tax returns, three counts of wire fraud, and two counts of obstruction of justice, according to the Intelligencer and a press release.
The Business Journal says Naselsky was ordered to pay $290,000 in restitution to Cozen O’Connor, and about $133,000 in restitution to the IRS. The Intelligencer says that, in addition to those amounts, Naselsky was also ordered to pay $290,000 in forfeiture to the federal government.
Naselsky worked at five different firms in the 11 years before his arrest, the Business Journal says. The last three firms were Deeb Petrakis Blum & Murphy, Blank Rome and Cozen O’Connor, according to the Intelligencer.
