My mother has always told me that for real estate the most important thing is location, location, and location. For the Bozo tax crooks out there, location definitely matters. Of course, when you sell real estate you do need to actually own the property. And that was where our Bozo went wrong…the first time.
Back in 2007, John Greerty found a nice winery in Yountville, California. He decided to sell the winery. He didn’t own the property, but that was just a trivial problem for him. Mr. Greerty changed his name and even got a new driver’s license. He was able to bilk one potential purchaser. However, the second prospective buyer used Google to find out the true owner of the winery and contacted the authorities. Mr. Greerty is serving nine years for that fraud.
Well, he’s facing new charges: state tax evasion. He’s accused of not paying the state income tax on the over $500,000 he earned from committing real estate fraud. Yes, illegal income is just as taxable as legal income. And yes, you can be prosecuted for not paying taxes on illegal income.
In the end, it’s a lot easier to just pay your taxes…but that rarely occurs to the Bozos out there.