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Press Release

Utah Chiropractor Indicted for Tax Evasion

For Immediate Release
Office of Public Affairs

Submitted Checks Drawn on Closed Accounts to IRS

A Salt Lake City, Utah grand jury returned an indictment today charging a chiropractor and health care products business owner with one count of attempting to evade the payment of his federal income taxes for the years 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2010, and one count of corruptly endeavoring to impair and impede the due administration of the internal revenue laws, announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Caroline D. Ciraolo, head of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and U.S. Attorney John W. Huber for the District of Utah. 

According to the allegations in the indictment, in March 2012, Louis Hansen, presented a check to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in the amount of $342,699.41 that was drawn on a closed bank account in an attempt to pay taxes, penalties and interest that he owed for tax years 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2010.  He also caused a copy of this check to be mailed to an IRS revenue officer, as well as a signed certified letter claiming that he had submitted the check to discharge his debt.  The indictment further alleges that in June 2012, Hansen presented four additional checks to the IRS drawn on a different closed bank account in an attempt to have funds credited to his IRS tax account.  Each check was in the amount of $425,000.  According to the indictment, at the time these four checks were presented to the IRS, Hansen owed more than $240,000 in taxes for the years 2005, 2006, 2007, 2010 and 2011.

If convicted, Hansen faces a statutory maximum sentence of five years in prison on the tax evasion charge and a statutory maximum sentence of three years in prison on the charge of endeavoring to impede the internal revenue laws, as well as a period of supervised release and monetary penalties.

An indictment merely alleges that a crime has been committed, and a defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Ciraolo and U.S. Attorney Huber thanked agents of IRS–Criminal Investigation, who conducted the investigation and Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin L. Sundwall and Assistant Chief Andrew Kameros of the Tax Division, who are prosecuting the case.

Additional information about the Tax Division and its enforcement efforts may be found on the division’s website.

Updated October 19, 2016

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Tax
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Press Release Number: 16-1227