Oshkosh Attorney Sentenced to Prison for Failure to Pay Federal Income Taxes

United States Attorney James L. Santelle announced that George W. Curtis (77 years old) of Pickett, Wisconsin was sentenced in federal court in Green Bay yesterday for failing to pay federal income taxes he owed for the years 2007 - 2009.  Chief United States District Judge William C. Griesbach sentenced Curtis to six months in prison and ordered him to pay the IRS approximately $380,000 in taxes he failed to pay. Judge Griesbach also placed Curtis on supervised release for one year and ordered him to pay the costs of prosecution, in the amount of $3,878.28.

Curtis who is a lawyer practicing in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, was convicted after a jury trial of three counts of willfully failing to pay the taxes he owed for those years.  While Curtis filed tax returns for these years reporting his income and taxes, he paid none of the taxes. In addition, Curtis has yet to pay taxes he owed for the years 2003 and 2004. 

At trial, the government introduced evidence that during the years 2007 – 2009, Curtis’ law practice generated a profit of approximately $1.1 million and that he used those funds to make personal expenditures totaling more than $1 million.  Nonetheless, Curtis paid none of the federal income taxes he owed for those years.