SAN FRANCISCO – LAWFUEL – The Legal Newswire – United States Attorney Scott N. Schools announced that LeRoy Albert Lewis was sentenced today by U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston to 24 months in prison, followed by a term of three years of supervised release. This sentence is the result of an investigation by the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation.
Mr. Lewis, an oral surgeon from Danville, California pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States on May 18, 2007. According to his indictment, for more than 10 years, Mr. Lewis attempted to evade tax on income he earned from his medical practice. Around 1995, he joined an organization based in Denver, called Tower Executive Resources, Ltd. (Tower). Tower assisted its members to evade federal income taxes, in part by providing a false invoicing scheme to offset income the members’ businesses earned. Mr. Lewis’ medical practice paid funds to Tower in exchange for bogus Tower invoices to substantiate huge false business expenses Mr. Lewis deducted on the medical practice’s returns. Tower then deposited the bulk of those funds into an offshore bank account, which Mr. Lewis controlled. Over the years covered by the indictment, Mr. Lewis transferred substantial amounts of untaxed income from his medical practice to the offshore bank account using the Tower scheme. The indictment also alleges that Mr. Lewis attempted to evade tax on a substantial amount of income generated from the sale of his medical practice in 1998 using a false option agreement crafted by Tower.
Mr. Lewis’ son, Roy Lewis, a dentist and also a member of Tower, was charged in the same indictment. Roy Lewis also used the Tower false invoicing scheme to conceal the transfer of untaxed income from his dental practice to an offshore bank account to evade federal income tax. On August 10, 2006, after a three-week jury trial, he was convicted of conspiring to defraud the United States and evading his income taxes for 1998 through 2001. On February 23, 2007, Roy Lewis was sentenced to serve 24 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release. He is currently serving out that sentence.
In April 2005, two promoters of the Tower scheme were convicted of conspiracy and willfully aiding and assisting in the preparation of fraudulent tax returns. In December 2006, the Tower organization’s “tax expert,” was also convicted of the same conspiracy. Numerous other Tower clients across the country have either pled guilty or have been convicted of tax offenses for engaging in conduct similar to the conduct alleged in the indictment against the Lewises.
This case was prosecuted by Department of Justice, Tax Division trial attorney Michael J. Watling. This case was the result of an investigation by the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation
