Tax Evasion

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.

A Columbia computer consultant has been indicted on charges of failing to file tax returns and not paying taxes on at least $675,000 in income, the U.S. attorney's office announced yesterday. Federal prosecutors charge that Anthony Edwin Dorsey Sr. did not file returns or pay taxes from 2001 to 2005, even though he was operating an information technology consulting business called Allnet System Resources. Allnet's clients included the U.S. Census Bureau, which paid it more than $350,000 over three years, according to the indictment filed in U.S. District Court.

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.

The federal tax court has ruled in favor of the Internal Revenue Service in a 14-year-old evasion case involving a now-dead lawyer who was one of the nation's leading tax advisers, millions of dollars in reported real estate kickbacks and a Supreme Court ruling that ended a long-standing practice of secrecy in tax court. And if that is not enough, it is probably not over. In the decision last week, Judge Harry A. Haines of the U.S. Tax Court ruled that the lawyer, Burton W. Kanter, and two associates had accepted kickbacks from the Pritzker family of Chicago, which owns the Hyatt hotels, and then evaded taxes on the payments.

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.