In 1987, the United States Congress passed the first sentencing guidelines to end the sentencing disparity seen throughout the federal system. These guidelines stripped the district court of most of their discretion in sentencing federal criminal defendants. This post looks at the 2016 Sentencing Guidelines with a focus on criminal tax and child pornography cases.
The Supreme Court brought the Obstruction statute for criminal tax cases in line with existing federal law in Marinello v. United States (2018)
The Internal Revenue Service fears the cryptocurrency market has given birth to large scale tax fraud in the United States. As previously discussed, the anonymity, decentralized nature of crypto currency trading, and large gains in the last five years, make crypto investments an obvious focus for the IRS.
Cryptocurrencies began with the introduction of Bitcoin in 2009. Bitcoin is a form of currency crypto investors can hold in an online wallet to make payments for various items. Bitcoin can be used to pay for goods online, pay other Bitcoin wallet holders or as a currency to initiate trades for other crypto assets.
The Supreme Court of the United States opened the door to the good faith defense in their landmark decision in Cheek v. United States. This opinion makes ignorance of the law a valid defense in a tax fraud prosecution.
This is an article written by Wendell Odom, and used in seminars across the country, to explain the road map in a criminal tax case. In Part One, Wendell outlines the move from a civil audit to criminal charges and the big five criminal tax cases.