Taxation Legal News

Chicago Attorney Sentenced To Prison For Tax Evasion

Robert Wayne Hallock, an attorney from Chicago, Ill., was sentenced today in federal court for attempting to evade taxes on more than $1 million in income, the Justice Department and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced. U.S. District Judge Matthew F. Kennelly in Chicago sentenced Hallock to 24 months in prison. In addition, the court ordered Hallock to serve two years of supervised release upon the completion of his term of imprisonment.

“People who attempt to cheat on their taxes will be prosecuted, convicted and sent to prison,” said Eileen J. O’Connor, Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Tax Division. “The Department of Justice and IRS continue to protect the U.S. Treasury and the interests of all honest taxpayers.”

In October 2006, Hallock was convicted of tax evasion after a week-long trial. According to the indictment and evidence introduced at his February 1997 trial, Hallock, formerly a partner at the law firm of Kirkland & Ellis LLP, sold a fraudulent Certificate of Deposit from which he received approximately $1.8 million dollars. In an attempt to hide the income from the government, Hallock funneled it through a Florida bank account in the name of a limited liability company and hired an associate to use those funds to purchase hundreds of thousands of dollars in cashier’s checks that Hallock used to spend on personal expenditures. The expenditures included, among other things, $150,000 in checks to his girlfriend and her parents; and a $100,000 honeymoon aboard a private yacht. The court found that Hallock evaded over $400,000 in income taxes for 1997.

More information about the Justice Department’s efforts against income tax evaders can be found at http://www.usdoj.gov/tax/taxpress2007.htm. Information about the Justice Department’s Tax Division can be found at http://www.usdoj.gov/tax.

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	Did You Know?
	There are tax rules if change in accounting method is made Generally, the partnership must get IRS consent to change its method of accounting used to report income (for income as a whole or for any material item). To do so, it must file Form 3115, Application for Change in Accounting Method. See Form 3115 and Pub. 538, Accounting Periods and Methods.