FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE TAX
MONDAY, DECEMBER 1, 1997 (202) 616-2765
TDD (202) 514-1888
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Federal authorities have arrested and taken into custody an Idaho attorney on charges he failed to report and pay federal taxes on more than $400,000 of income from his law firm for several years, and that he transferred some of the unreported income to foreign accounts, the Department of Justice announced today.
Loretta C. Argrett, Assistant Attorney General for the Tax Division, said Steven J. Pierce had been indicted in U.S. District Court in Boise, Idaho, for willfully filing false 1992, 1993 and 1994 federal income tax returns in violation of 26 U.S.C. Sec. 7206(1).
Pierce, an attorney and former Boise resident, practiced law in Idaho and Oregon. He was arrested November 24, 1997, in Miami, Florida. At a court hearing, bail was set at $100,000 and Pierce remained in custody.
According to the indictment, Pierce allegedly failed to report more than $445,000 in gross receipts from his law practice. Pierce diverted some of the unreported gross receipts to a bank account of a foreign corporation he maintained in the Turks and Caicos islands in the Caribbean, the indictment said.
The maximum penalties for violation of 26 U.S.C. Sec. 7206(1) are three years imprisonment and/or a $250,000 fine per count.
The case was investigated by the Criminal Investigation Division of the Internal Revenue Service and is being prosecuted by the Department's Tax Division, Western Criminal Enforcement Section.
97-505