A couple of days ago, Alderman Thompson joined the long line of sitting Chicago City Councilmen who’ve been convicted of a crime. The list is too long to contemplate.
It took only three and a half hours for the jury to bring back a verdict of guilty on two counts of lying to federal prosecutors and five counts of tax fraud. To be frank, I’m surprised it took them that long.
Tax cases are rather open and shut affairs.
If it’s a tax evasion charge, they prove that you received the money. At that point they open up your tax return and prove that you didn’t claim the income. Done. Over. Guilty.
If it’s a case like Alderman Thompson’s where he was over deducted, it’s the same basic scenario. They prove that you shouldn’t have taken the deduction and pull out your income tax return showing the deduction. Done. Over. Guilty.
And in the case of this guy, where he took the deduction for five straight years, there’s no room for reasonable doubt. This guy is a high-powered lawyer after all. He actually knows better.
These cases are not very defensible. Attorneys will tell all sorts of lies in order to get the case, but they’ll always ask for a retainer. Why? Because you’re probably going down and they have families to feed.
If anyone asks why I’m so hard on my clients when it comes to providing evidence for an income tax return, I want you to remember this case. This was by definition a study in stupidity and hubris.
Alderman Thompson probably did it because he thought could get away with it. If you look at what he saved by claiming the deduction vs. what this has already cost in legal fees plus his career and only God knows how many years in prison, you begin to understand the abject stupidity of the act.
Don’t make the same mistake. Be honest. Pay your taxes on time and be grateful that you can breathe free air.
Let me leave you with this.
There’s one thing that Alderman Thompson’s attorney said that’s absolutely true. Normally this wouldn’t have gone to trial.
There are only a few cases that go to trial every year. Mostly these cases are handled in back rooms where you negotiate with Revenue Officers. In order to understand why it was tried, you need to know something about the Federal Prosecutors Office.
They normally have less than ten openings every year for attorneys and receive at least 1500 resumes to fill those openings. As such they hire the best of the best. Harvard Law, Summa Cum Laude, you get the picture.
The career path for these young prosecutors is tried and true. They want to spend five or six years as a Federal prosecutor, acquire a sterling conviction rate, and then become a partner at the law Firm of Dewey, Cheatum, and Howe for the low, low discount price of half a mil a year.
These kids don’t waste time. They don’t prosecute cases where there’s any question of a conviction. They don’t want to spend one more minute at the Prosecutor’s Office making pennies on the dollar than they have to. They went through Havard and worked their behinds off so that they could get the house on the Northshore, the Lamborghini, and the psychotic spouse with all the plastic surgery.
What I’m trying to say is that if they’re coming after you, be afraid. Be very afraid. These kids don’t have time to waste. They want the partnership with all the fabulous prizes and they’re not going to waste time on a maybe.
The prosecutor in this case can now go to their first interview as the person who actually put one of the Daley’s away. The Feds have been trying and failing to do that for years. Don’t kid yourselves my brothers and sisters. That’s money in the bank.
Again, don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time. Be honest. Pay your taxes on time and be grateful that you can breathe free air.
We’re all going to get through this. Let’s get through it together.
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