United States Seventh Circuit

In a prosecution of defendants for conspiracy to impede the IRS and filing false income tax returns, for selling fraudulent trust packages which were used by defendants' clients to conceal income from the IRS, district court's judgment is affirmed in part, vacated in part and remanded where: 1) because trial began within the seventy-day period, defendants' Speedy Trial Act argument fails; 2) defendants failed to show a constitutional speedy trial violation as most of the delay in proceeding to trial was attributable to the defendants and they failed to show that they suffered any prejudice; 3) a warrant was sufficient and the evidence obtained pursuant to that warrant was properly admitted; 4) defendant's claim that his conviction for filing a false tax return is time-barred by the statute of limitations is rejected; 5) it was neither prosecutorial misconduct nor an abuse of discretion to admit defendant's evidence of subsequent tax returns; 6) defendant's contention that the district court imposed an excessive sentence on him is rejected; 7) co-defendant's sufficiency of evidence argument is rejected; but 8) co-defendant's conviction is vacated and remanded as the government's references to the Fifth Amendment was plain error that affected co-defendant's substantial rights.

Appellate Information

• Argued 05/18/2010
• Decided 08/18/2010
• Published 08/18/2010

Judges

• KANNE

Court

• United States Seventh Circuit

Counsel