Convicted tax cheat imprisoned

SANDPOINT — A Hope businessman was ordered Monday to serve three and half years in federal prison for withholding income taxes from debt-elimination businesses that federal prosecutors say raked in millions.

Michael George Fitzpatrick was also ordered by U.S. District Judge Larry Burns to pay nearly $1.4 million in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service and serve three years of supervised probation following his release from federal prison, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Idaho has announced.

Kathryn Keneally, assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s tax division, said the Fitzpatrick case sends a strong message that those who defy the nation’s tax laws will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

“The sentence imposed today demonstrates that anyone who attempts to evade taxes by hiding assets in offshore bank accounts faces significant time in prison for these crimes,” Keneally said in a statement.

The 42-month sentence imposed by Burns fell below the 63- to 78-month sentence recommended by federal prosecutors. They argued such a sentence was justified due to the lengths Fitzpatrick went in order to conceal his income and his repeated violations of court instructions while acting as his own defense counsel at trial.

Fitzpatrick, 51, was convicted in 2012 of failing to file corporate tax returns. He was convicted of failing to file personal income taxes earlier this year.

According to the indictment and evidence introduced at both trials, Fitzpatrick operated Dynamic Solutions Inc. and North American Educational Services, businesses with purportedly helped consumers eliminate credit card debt. The businesses grossed $9 million, federal prosecutors alleged.

The government proved at trial that the corporations filed to report $3.7 million and Fitzpatrick himself failed to report over $500,000 in income, resulting in a total tax loss of $1.3 million.

The trials further established that Fitzpatrick last filed an individual tax return in 1996. Fitzpatrick argued extensively at trial that the income law did not apply to him, although the evidence showed that Fitzpatrick expended significant time and expense to put all of his property in the names of nominees.

Evidence at trial showed that Fitzpatrick sent over $5 million offshore to a bank located in the Dominican Republic and accessed the funds via debit card and wire transfers. Fitzpatrick also used over $1 million of the sheltered funds to buy real estate and gamble on nine separate trips to the Bellagio Casino.

Jurors also heard that Fitzpatrick paid a contractor to build a schoolhouse for his kids in his backyard in Hope.

United States Attorney Wendy Olson commended the work of tax division counsels and said paying taxes is a solemn obligation of citizenship.

“Mister Fitzpatrick’s conviction and sentence make clear that those who try to hide income knowingly and falsely claim that income tax laws do not apply to them will be prosecuted and ordered to pay,” Olson said in a press release.