Taxable Talk

Two business executives. Two men with tax troubles. Is ClubFed in their futures?

Joseph Smith was the former treasurer and CFO of the Catholic diocese of Cleveland, Ohio. He supplemented his earnings by engaging in a kickback scheme. He funneled work to a co-conspirator and in return received kickbacks of over $784,000. And those kickbacks were disguised as compensation for consulting and legal services. He was found guilty of six tax charges and will be sentenced this October.

Lyle Larson was a not-so-successful computer entrepreneur in Edmonds, Washington. His tax return showed that he only made $38,000 of business income. That is, when he bothered to file a tax return (he "forgot" in 2004, 2005, and 2007). I did leave some things out. Like his luxury yacht. His cars. His $2.8 million in earnings. Mr. Larson left those out from his tax returns between 2000 and 2003. He'll have 18 months at ClubFed to think over those omissions, and he must make restitution of over $879,000 to the IRS.

If you get lucky in business or otherwise do yourself a favor. Set aside some of your earnings to pay your taxes. You can pay now, or pay later, but it's a whole lot easier to pay now.

When I was growing up just north of Chicago my parents told me about how the dead voted. That didn't seem right to me, but I did learn at a young age about Chicago politics.

Last year I reported that former Alderman Arenda Troutman was accused of 13 counts, including mail fraud and tax fraud. She had said she was innocent...until this week.

Sam Adam, Jr., Troutman's attorney, told the Chicago Defender, "I can say that the federal government did their homework, which is evident by what we see here today. For the benefit of her family and for the benefit of her personally, we felt this was the best thing to do at this time." What she did was to plead guilty to one count each of mail fraud and tax fraud.

When she's sentenced this December she'll be spending some time at ClubFed. Her attorney is hoping to keep the sentence under 33 months; however, she's likely to spend around four years there.