Co-Owner of Media Brokerage Firm Pleads Guilty to Filing a False Tax Return

A former Maryland woman pleaded guilty today to filing a false tax return.

According to court documents and statements made in court, Susan K. Patrick, now a resident of Cody, Wyoming, co-owned a media brokerage firm with her husband and hired an accounting firm to prepare business and personal tax returns for 2012 through 2014. Despite receiving the completed and accurate tax returns from the accounting firm, Patrick did not file them with the IRS. After the IRS contacted Patrick and requested that she file the unfiled returns, Patrick lied to the IRS, claiming that her accounting firm had timely filed the returns and that she would provide copies of those returns.

Patrick did not provide copies of the accurate returns that had in fact been prepared by her accounting firm. Instead, Patrick doctored the business returns, removing $10,000,000 in gross receipts earned by her brokerage firm, and altered the personal returns by removing over $9,500,000 in income that she and her husband had earned from 2012 through 2014. Patrick also falsely backdated her signature on each tax return to make it appear as if the returns had been timely signed and mailed these falsely doctored documents to the IRS, hoping to evade paying the full amount of taxes she owed.

In addition, Patrick failed to timely file business and individual returns for 2015, which she had also hired the accounting firm to prepare, nor did she pay the tax due and owing for the individual return.

In total, Patrick sought to evade more than $2,500,000 in taxes.

Patrick faces a maximum statutory penalty of three years in prison. She also faces a term of supervised release, monetary penalties, and restitution. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors. 

Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stuart M. Goldberg of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and U.S. Attorney Erek L. Barron for the District of Maryland made the announcement. 

IRS-Criminal Investigation is investigating the case. 

Assistant Chief Thomas F. Koelbl and Trial Attorney Matthew L. Cofer of the Tax Division are prosecuting the case.