NY man receives 18 month sentence for filing false tax return

The United States Attorney for the Northern District of New York, has announced that Timothy M. Schmidt of Potsdam, New York was sentenced today before District Judge Glenn T. Suddaby, in Syracuse NY.

Judge Suddaby imposed a sentence including 18 months incarceration and restitution to the Internal Revenue Service of $270,802.49. In August, Schmidt had entered a guilty plea to a violation of Title 26, United States Code, Section 7206(1): signing and filing a false income tax return.

The documents filed at sentencing set out that, from 2003 through 2010, the defendant served as a handy man and occasional contractor for an elderly woman from whom he obtained over $1 million, none of which he acknowledged as income on his tax returns.

Schmidt persuaded the woman, who suffers from Alzheimer’s disease, to write checks in amount less than $10,000 in order to avoid alerting the IRS. The government’s Sentencing Memorandum noted that by the time the Potsdam Police began investigating this case, the defendant was in the process of having the woman change her will so that he (Schmidt) would be the beneficiary.

This prosecution resulted from an investigation conducted by the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation, New York Field Office and the Potsdam Police Department. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Ransom P. Reynolds.

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Income Tax