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Press Release

Rockford Chiropractor Sentenced To 10 Months In Federal Prison For Federal Income Tax Evasion

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Northern District of Illinois

ROCKFORD — A Rockford, Ill. chiropractor was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Frederick J. Kapala for federal income tax evasion. The defendant, Todd R. Cevene, 42, of Caledonia, Ill., was sentenced to 10 months in federal prison. Cevene had been charged on Dec. 14, 2012, with tax evasion by a criminal Information and pled guilty to the charge on Dec. 21, 2012. The court also ordered Cevene to serve 3 years of supervised release following imprisonment, and to pay a fine of $40,000.

According to the Information and plea agreement, Cevene owned or controlled Cevene Care Clinic, S.C., Cevene Management Group, Inc., Cevene Enterprises, LLC, and Todd Cevene Alaska Asset Preservation Trust. Cevene admitted in his plea agreement that for a four-year period between 2004 and 2007, he intentionally evaded payment of his federal income taxes by transferring substantial amounts of Cevene Care Clinic's income to Cevene Management Group, Todd Cevene Alaska Asset Preservation Trust, and Cevene Enterprises. Cevene then used a large amount of the transferred funds to pay for his personal expenses, knowing that these payments would improperly be used as business expense deductions on the federal income tax returns of the entities and that he would not claim those payments as his own personal income. Cevene admitted in his plea agreement that he also caused a large amount of the transferred funds to be transferred directly to him and that he did not include all of those distributions as income on his own personal federal income tax returns.

According to the plea agreement, Cevene admitted that by spreading the income of Cevene Care Clinic among the other entities and using those funds to pay for his personal expenses and make distributions, he intended to diminish the likelihood of discovery of his attempt to evade federal income taxes. Cevene further admitted that he frequently made more than one transfer between the entities in an attempt to avoid detection.

Cevene admitted he owed substantial amounts of income tax for calendar years 2004 through 2007 to the United States that he did not accurately report or pay. Cevene further admitted that his failure to accurately report income and expenses during those years caused a total underpayment of federal income tax of $91,568. Cevene paid these back taxes to the Internal Revenue Service prior to today’s sentencing.

The sentencing was announced by Gary S. Shapiro, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, and James C. Lee, Special Agent-In-Charge of the Chicago Field Office of Internal Revenue Service - Criminal Investigation Division.

The government was represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael D. Love.

Updated July 23, 2015