Tax Evasion

Man dies of wounds in Northwest shooting An unidentified man who was shot several times late Wednesday in Northwest Baltimore died of his injuries early yesterday, city police said. Agent Donny Moses, a police spokesman, said officers received a report of a man lying in the front yard of a residence in the 3100 block of Artaban Place about 11:40 p.m. The man had suffered multiple gunshot wounds and was taken to Sinai Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 12:16 a.m., Moses said. Police have not identified a suspect in the killing and knew of no motive, Moses said.

WASHINGTON -- The fading Whitewater investigation gained at least a few months of life yesterday as the Supreme Court agreed to rule on a fresh constitutional issue raised by independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr.The court, in a brief order, said it would rule on a question stirred up by the years-long courthouse feuding between Starr and Webster L. Hubbell, a former top-ranking Justice Department official in the Clinton administration.The court's willingness to hear the case was somewhat of a surprise, because there will be little or no practical effect on Starr or Hubbell, no matter what the final decision is.Plea deal for HubbellHubbell and Starr have made a deal, under which Hubbell pleaded guilty to tax evasion and was sentenced to one year on probation.

In a potentially damaging blow to the prosecution, an Anne Arundel County circuit judge threw out the four extortion charges against former state Sen. Larry Young yesterday but left it for a jury to decide five remaining counts of bribery and tax evasion."

The Johns Hopkins University has filed a multimillion-dollar civil lawsuit against its former facilities director and four others, charging that the university was defrauded in a scheme involving false and inflated billings from two contractors.The suit, filed Friday in Carroll County Circuit Court, follows the sentencing three weeks ago of the facilities director, Robert J. Schuerholz, who received 18 months in federal prison for income tax evasion for failing to pay taxes on money he received in the scheme.

A former Johns Hopkins University administrator was sentenced yesterday to 18 months in federal prison for income tax evasion after failing to pay taxes on university money he received in a billing fraud and kickback scheme.U.S. District Judge Benson E. Legg also sentenced Robert J. Schuerholz, 64, of Manor Glen Road in Baldwinto two years of supervised release and a $4,000 fine.Schuerholz, Hopkins' former executive director of facilities and management, pleaded guilty in May to a single count of tax evasion for 1995, when he understated his income by $113,470 and failed to pay $31,772 in taxes.

I told you you'd be back, LY. They expelled you from the Maryland Senate for ethics violations, but even in that dark hour, I knew you'd be back. Now that a jury has acquitted you of bribery and tax evasion charges, you've won five-star martyrdom. Return to public office is a given.It's something of a tradition around here.Nathaniel "Natty O" Oaks is a member of the General Assembly despite a fall from grace that involved a conviction. He went out in 1989, came back in 1994. The late Dale Anderson, once the Baltimore County executive, was elected to the House of Delegates in 1982, eight years after his conviction on extortion and tax evasion.

A former Johns Hopkins University administrator, fired amid contracting irregularities, has been charged by prosecutors with income tax evasion for fraudulently understating the income on his 1995 federal return by $113,470.Robert J. Schuerholz, 63, who was ousted two years ago from his job as Hopkins' executive director of real estate and facilities after allegations of kickbacks and other financial improprieties, is scheduled to be arraigned May 13 before U.S. District Judge Benson E. Legg.

Former Johns Hopkins University administrator Robert J. Schuerholz admitted yesterday in federal court to failing to report $348,900 in taxable income over a four-year period -- university money he received in what prosecutors described as a "billing fraud and kickback scheme."The extent of Schuerholz's income tax evasion -- he avoided paying $97,692 in federal income taxes from 1992 to 1995 -- and the details of his scheme were revealed by prosecutors in a statement of facts that accompanied a plea agreement reached with the 63-year-old resident of Manor Glen Road in Baldwin.

Former state Sen. Larry Young was cleared of bribery and tax evasion charges last night, ending a sensational corruption case that began soon after the once-powerful Baltimore Democrat was expelled from the General Assembly last year.The not-guilty verdicts on four counts of bribery and one count of income tax evasion were announced in quick succession at 6: 05 p.m. at the Anne Arundel County courthouse.Four accompanying extortion charges were thrown out earlier in the week by the presiding judge, Joseph P. Manck.

The cantor for an Upper Park Heights synagogue could receive a five-year prison term and a $250,000 fine when he is sentenced for income tax evasion and insurance fraud.Benzion Weiss, 44, who has been the cantor at Beth Jacob Congregation for more than 15 years, pleaded guilty on Tuesday before U.S. District Court Judge Catherine C. Blake to one count of tax evasion and one count of mail fraud. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 6.In a hearing in U.S. District Court in Baltimore, Weiss admitted not paying taxes in 1984 and submitting a false insurance claim in May 1997 to CNA Insurance Cos.He also admitted overstating the amount he received in a housing allowance, or parsonage, from Beth Jacob Congregation.

Castroneves cleared of most tax charges auto racing Two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Helio Castroneves was acquitted Friday of most charges that he worked with his sister and lawyer to evade more than $2.3 million in U.S. income taxes. A federal jury acquitted Castroneves on six counts of tax evasion but was hung on one count of conspiracy. The jury also acquitted Katiucia Castroneves, 35, who is her 33-year-old brother's business manager, on the tax evasion counts but hung on the conspiracy charge.

A federal jury has convicted a Columbia man of evading taxes and failing to file tax returns, the U.S. attorney's office announced. Anthony Edwin Dorsey Sr., 58, evaded income taxes by converting income to cash, transferring money to offshore bank accounts and using false Social Security numbers to avoid detection, officials said. Since at least 1999, Dorsey ran Allnet System Resources, an information technology consulting company. As an independent contractor, he was supposed to pay federal and state income, payroll and Medicare taxes, prosecutors said.

Federal agents this week raided the offices of Milton Tillman Jr., a leading Baltimore bail bondsman who has been a repeated target of federal and state law enforcement and was convicted years ago of tax evasion and bribery. A spokeswoman for U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein would confirm only that the federal agents raided 2332 E. Monument St., the headquarters of Tillman's 4 Aces bond company; 1101 North Point Blvd. and 1003 Greenmount Ave., both business addresses; and 3818 Kimble Road, which is in the same block where Tillman's son was wounded in a drug-related shooting.

Man dies of wounds in Northwest shooting An unidentified man who was shot several times late Wednesday in Northwest Baltimore died of his injuries early yesterday, city police said. Agent Donny Moses, a police spokesman, said officers received a report of a man lying in the front yard of a residence in the 3100 block of Artaban Place about 11:40 p.m. The man had suffered multiple gunshot wounds and was taken to Sinai Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 12:16 a.m., Moses said. Police have not identified a suspect in the killing and knew of no motive, Moses said.

A prominent highway bridge painting contractor for the state pleaded guilty yesterday to tax evasion after failing to pay the government more than $1.2 million in personal and corporate taxes, according to the U.S. attorney's office. Athanasios Reglas, 57, also pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Baltimore to creating a complex accounting scheme that hid more than $800,000 in income from the government, federal prosecutors said. According to the plea agreement, Reglas used names and bank accounts of two fictitious companies he created to bill the Reglas Painting Co. for subcontracting work that was never performed.

A former IRS agent and owner of a Baltimore adult club pleaded guilty yesterday in federal court to tax evasion. Ronald C. Heidel, 59, of Sanibel, Fla., had been indicted in December on charges of making false statements on his personal and corporate tax returns from 1999 through 2001 for a company that controlled the Gentlemen's Gold Club on Pulaski Highway. Heidel also was charged with illegally separating almost $1.5 million in cash deposits to avoid currency transaction reporting requirements.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Reality television met its match when it found Richard Hatch: He was the man with a plan to get rid of 15 fellow castaways, and with Machiavellian mojo he pulled it off and won a million dollars. Six years later, Hatch is starring in a different kind of survival contest. He is on trial for failing to pay taxes on his million-dollar windfall, charged in a 10-count indictment with tax evasion, filing false income tax returns, wire fraud, bank fraud and mail fraud. He could receive 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine if convicted.

WASHINGTON -- Asking forgiveness from "the Almighty and from those I have wronged," Jack Abramoff, once considered the most powerful lobbyist on Capitol Hill, pleaded guilty yesterday to a scheme of fraud and tax evasion that could send him to prison for 11 years. Abramoff now becomes a prospective witness for the prosecution in a continuing influence-peddling probe of Congress that has mushroomed into a major corruption scandal. The investigation has already ensnared one member of Congress, and Abramoff's guilty plea gives the probe a new impetus.

Two years after federal authorities began investigating a former state senator and a Baltimore construction company that received high-profile state jobs, one of the firm's former partners has been charged with mail fraud and tax evasion in U.S. District Court. The charges stem from a broader grand jury investigation of Poole and Kent Co. and its connection to former state Sen. Thomas L. Bromwell, who once chaired the Senate Finance Committee and resigned his seat in 2002 to become head of the state's Injured Workers Insurance Fund.

A federal grand jury has indicted an Annapolis couple on charges of tax evasion and filing false tax returns in connection with their former plumbing business, U.S. Attorney Thomas M. DiBiagio said yesterday. The five-count indictment alleges that Henry M. Eberly, 75, and his wife, Dolores, 74, "did willfully and knowingly attempt to evade ... a large portion of income tax" - an amount prosecutors estimated at $138,000 - in the late 1990s. They also are accused of underreporting income from their business, Eberly Plumbing Inc. The indictment alleges that the couple reported a taxable income of $9,163 in 1997, but earned more than $208,000 during that time.