Criminal Justice
Nev. Lawyer Gets 5 Years for Evading Income Tax
Posted Jul 17, 2009, 02:10 pm CST
By Martha Neil
A 47-year-old personal injury attorney in Nevada has been sentenced to a five-year federal prison term for evading millions of dollars in taxes.
Although Edmund Botha made millions as a Las Vegas lawyer, he paid rent, office overhead and other costs in cash or with cashier's checks, in an effort to avoid paying income tax to the Internal Revenue Service, reports the Las Vegas Sun. He was convicted by a federal jury last year for willfully failing to pay income tax from 1998 to 2001.
"The length, breadth and complexity of this scheme and the gravity of the offense warranted a severe penalty," said Greg Brower, the United States attorney for the District of Nevada. "Despite earning more than $7 million between 1996 and 2006, Mr. Botha paid just over $230,000 in taxes and went to great lengths to hide his assets from the IRS."
In addition to his prison term, Botha must serve three years of supervised release and must pay a little over $685,000 in restitution to the IRS during that period.
The article doesn't include any comment from him or his lawyer.