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Springfield Woman Sentenced to 18 Months Imprisonment
for Filing False Tax Returns
Springfield, IL -- Jan Paul Miller, United States Attorney for the Central
District of Illinois, announced that a Springfield, Illinois, woman, Bette
Pree, age 69, of 700 North Walnut, was sentenced today to a term of 18
months imprisonment for knowingly filing false tax returns. U.S. District
Judge Jeanne E. Scott further ordered Pree serve one year supervised release
following imprisonment and to pay the Internal Revenue Service $38,852
for federal tax due or owed for 1994-1996. Pree was ordered to self-report
to a Bureau of Prisons facility on April 3, 2003.
Pree was convicted by a federal jury in September 2002, of two counts
of filing false tax returns for calendar years 1995 and 1996.
Evidence presented by the government at trial showed Pree sold shares
of stock in Health Care Centers of America (now known as Hexagon Consolidated
Company of America) valued at $178,000 to 48 investors in 1994, 1995,
and 1996. Pree listed her total income as $3,441 for 1995 and $7,231 for
1996. Pree had received 350,000 shares of stock from Maurice Furlong,
the president of HCCA, in 1994 and had committed and sold additional shares
prior to receiving 1,000,000 additional shares. The government presented
evidence to show the stock was compensation for work Pree did for HCCA
and therefore the $178,000 in stock sales was taxable income.
At sentencing, Judge Scott ruled that Pree receive a two-level sentencing
enhancement for obstruction of justice when she committed perjury at trial.
More specifically, Judge Scott said Pree told remarkable, untrue stories
to explain her behavior, which was not the result of bad tax advice from
lawyers and tax preparers, but was instead due to her having aligned herself
with HCCA president Furlong.
The charges are the result of an investigation by the Criminal Investigation
Division of the Internal Revenue Service. Assistant U.S. Attorney Gregory
M. Gilmore of the Central District of Illinois and Special Assistant Patrick
King of the Northern District of Illinois prosecuted the case.
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