KANSAS CITY, Mo. – David M. Ketchmark, Acting United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that the owner of an Independence, Mo., auto sales business pleaded guilty in federal court today to tax evasion.

Douglas R. Jackson, 44, of Lee’s Summit, Mo., waived his right to a grand jury and pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Ortrie D. Smith to a federal information that charges him with tax evasion.

Jackson is the owner of Drew’s Auto Sales at 9630 East U.S. Highway 40 in Independence. By pleading guilty today, Jackson admitted that he substantially under-reported his income from his business on federal income tax returns for 2008, 2009 and 2010. According to today’s plea agreement, Jackson failed to report a total of $211,320 for the three-year period. Consequently, according to the plea agreement, Jackson has a total federal tax liability of $71,242 for those years.

Jackson also admitted that he under-reported his state tax liability as well, for a total state tax liability of $10,997 for the three-year period. The sum of the federal and state tax losses is $82,239.

Jackson also admitted that, in an effort to avoid additional scrutiny of his accounts by his bank and by the government, he made 35 deposits over a three-year period that were intentionally below the $10,000 threshold so that he would not have to file currency transaction reports. According to today’s plea agreement, those deposits were not reported on his tax returns.

Under federal statutes, Jackson is subject to a sentence of up to five years in federal prison without parole, plus a fine up to $100,000, the costs of prosecution and an order of restitution. A sentencing hearing will be scheduled after the completion of a presentence investigation by the United States Probation Office.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel M. Nelson. It was investigated by IRS-Criminal Investigation.

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