Another Entrepreneur

[Lee B]

"A Lake Oswego entrepreneur is facing up to five years in prison, after pleading guilty to stiffing the federal government out of more than $24 million in taxes.

Robert Kohnle was the CEO of Aliat, a company that helped other firms manage their payroll and health care benefits services.

But lawyers for the U.S. Department of Justice said that in fact, Kohnle spent six years, between 2016 and 2022, keeping the payroll tax withholdings of his clients’ employees — including income, Medicare and Social Security taxes — instead of turning them over to the Internal Revenue Service. In total, Kohnle bilked the Internal Revenue Service out of $24,816,602, they said.

He pleaded guilty on Friday."

Awash in a sea of con artists

[BrewOne]

up to five years in prison?  Not nearly enough, grrr.

[Patrick Michael]

How do these companies get away with this for so long?  After the first couple of missed payments why aren't they shutting these scams down?  It seems to me this would be some low hanging fruit that would be easy to stop.  

[Lee B]

I think the way it works is the the IRS does the investigatory legwork and then they refer the case to the Department of Justice

who decides whether or not to prosecute, Its just like the IRS doesn't the power to shut down fraudulent unlicensed tax preparers.

Without knowing the timeline, who knows?

[BrewOne]

part of the irony of being a Circular 230 practitioner--Office of Professional Regulation can throw the book at us.

[Terry D EA]

On 9/8/2023 at 10:52 AM, BrewOne said:

part of the irony of being a Circular 230 practitioner--Office of Professional Regulation can throw the book at us.

Yeah for sure!!! I don't get it. If I even tried something like this, they'd come get me in l ess than six months, plaster my face all over the news, lock me up and throw away the keys. I run away from clients who I have suspicions of not being honest. 

[Lee B]

Not Really, they can censure, sanction, fine or suspend, that's it.

Beyond that, they have to refer to the Department of Justice for prosecution.