Former House leader sentenced in tax fraud

[SethCohn]

http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007712110342

Former House leader sentenced in tax fraud
Palumbo was rising star in state politics

By LAUREN R. DORGAN
Monitor staff
December 11. 2007 12:25AM

Former New Hampshire House majority leader Vincent Palumbo was sentenced yesterday to 30 months in federal prison for failing to file tax returns on five years' income totaling more than $2 million.

As a young Republican legislator in the 1980s, Palumbo ascended the ranks of New Hampshire's House to become majority leader. He resigned from the House in 1989 at 33 years old amid reports that he had exaggerated education credentials and misstated his work. Ultimately, he was charged with bank fraud and income tax violations and was sentenced to a year in federal prison.

Yesterday, Palumbo, now 51, of Kingston, was back in federal court in Concord on similar charges. Two years after his supervision ended on previous charges, the prosecutor said, he stopped filing tax returns.

Palumbo, tan and wearing a striped suit, addressed the court quietly.

"I just want to apologize to the court for being here after being here before," he said. "I'm humbled, and I'm afraid for my family."

Palumbo previously pleaded guilty to willful failure to file returns on $2 million in income he made as a mortgage loan originator from 2000 to 2004. According to prosecutors, the period in which he didn't file stretched back to 1998, for a total income of $2.5 million. Palumbo couldn't be charged for the first two years because the statute of limitations had passed.

His lawyers had asked the judge for leniency, arguing in court papers that the government had overestimated Palumbo's previous criminal offenses and asking for a sentence of a year and a day. Palumbo and his wife, Carol, have five children.

"There is no credible defense to this inattention and Palumbo himself is the first to admit he was 'an idiot,' " defense attorney Frank Mondano wrote in a pre-sentencing filing. "In fact, he is not stupid, but there is something in his psychological makeup that permitted him to commit this oversight a second time."

In court, Mondano added: "By all conventional measures, except one, Vincent Palumbo is a good person, a good man." He also downplayed the seriousness of the charges, all misdemeanors, saying it was as "benign as crime can be."

But Assistant U.S. Attorney Don Feith said the crime was a fundamental one. "The United States does not ask much of its citizens," he said. "It asks them to vote in elections. It asks them to serve when called, and it asks them to pay taxes."

Hmm, wait a sec... voting isn't mandatory, and we don't have a draft, so serving in the military isn't mandatory....  so if he's being consistent... that means...  paying taxes must not be mandatory either!
Or else why bring up the first two?

Each charge carried a maximum penalty of 12 months in prison. Judge James Muirhead sentenced Palumbo to 30 months, plus one year supervised release.

Muirhead said that he had received 39 letters in support of Palumbo from family members and coworkers. But, he said, he had to consider Palumbo's previous charges, which he said made this more serious.

Palumbo has already begun paying restitution, prosecutors have said. Muirhead said he would schedule a hearing on restitution within 60 days.

Palumbo's prison sentence will begin Jan. 11, 2008.

[(V)]

But Assistant U.S. Attorney Don Feith said the crime was a fundamental one. "The United States does not ask much of its citizens," he said. "It asks them to vote in elections. It asks them to serve when called, and it asks them to pay taxes."

They never asked me to do any of those things. So I don't. 

[error]

What restitution? I read the whole article and I couldn't find anything about him taking property that didn't belong to him.

[David]

If anything he owes restitution for the years he spent making others pay in the house of reps.  The man no longer sets the tax code, decides he doesn't like it, and then is forced to pay for his 'crime'.  The irony. 
Truth is I don't have a whole lot of sympathy for him, even though I am a big supporter of tax avoidance.  It is possible that he is some big liberty lover and all that jazz, but it is hard to believe due to the fact that he was talked about for the potential to run the house.