John McKay, United States Attorney for the
Western District of Washington, announced
today that ELTON A. WILBORN, 55, formerly
of Bellevue and now a resident of Austin,
Texas, pleaded guilty today before United
States Magistrate Judge Mary Alice Theiler
to the crime of Filing a False Income Tax
Return. WILBORN is scheduled to be sentenced
by United States District Chief Judge John
C. Coughenour on March 12, 2004, at 9:30 a.m.
WILBORN faces a sentence of up to three years
imprisonment, a fine of up to $250,000, and
at least one (1) year of supervision after
his release from prison.
Court records show that on April 15, 2000,
WILBORN filed with the Internal Revenue Service
an U.S. Individual Income Tax Return (Form
1040), married filing jointly, for the calendar
year 1999. The income tax return was materially
false in that it understated his and his wife's
income and it overstated their itemized deductions
by substantial amounts. Consequently, WILBORN
willfully understated his and his wife's taxable
income for 1999 by approximately $384,000,
which, in turn, caused him and his wife to
pay less income tax than they truly owed.
WILBORN admitted that he had filed similar
false tax returns (Forms 1040) for 1997, 1998,
and 2000, as well. He had signed each of the
returns under the penalties of perjury and
he filed the returns with the Internal Revenue
Service.
Court records also establish that for all
four years combined, WILBORN fraudulently
omitted about $388,658 of income, which included
interest income, dividend income, and pension
income. He knew the income had been received,
but he failed to report it. WILBORN fraudulently
claimed false and/or non-existent itemized
deductions on the Schedules A that were attached
to each of his Forms 1040. The overstated
deductions included mortgage interest expenses,
property tax expenses, and charitable contributions,
which he knew did not exist.
WILBORN overstated his and his wife's deductions
by approximately $423,239. By not reporting
all of his and his wife's income, and by overstating
their itemized deductions, WILBORN was able
to fraudulently reduce the amount of their
taxable income by over $800,000 and to pay
less income taxes than they actually owed.
The tax loss incurred as a result of this
crime was an amount greater than $200,000,
but less than $325,000. Chief Judge Coughenour
will decide the amount of tax loss at the
sentencing.
The case was investigated by the Seattle
resident office of the Internal Revenue Service,
Criminal Investigation Division. The case
was prosecuted by Assistant United States
Attorney Janet Freeman.
For further information, please contact Janet
Freeman, Assistant United States Attorney,
at (206) 553-7729, or Lawrence Lincoln, spokesperson
for the United States Attorney's Office, at
(206) 553-4127.
