A patient Denver jury spent four weeks in deliberations before convicting two Coloradans on Wednesday of running an elaborate tax-evasion scheme.
In thanking the jurors, U.S. District Court Judge Walker Miller wondered whether the time they spent in the jury room was a district record. The trial lasted more than five weeks.
“It took us several days just to come to a basic understanding of the problem we were trying to solve,” said David Poundstone, the jury foreman and a semi-retired salesman at a local discount bookstore.
According to prosecutors, Paul Harris and Lester Retherford of Tower Executive Resources set up shell corporations in which members deposited nearly $9 million in taxable income. The money was allegedly transferred to offshore bank accounts under the guise that it was payment to Tower for consulting services. Instead, the government said, Tower’s members spent the money using debit cards and loans.
During deliberations, jurors stomped out of the room at different times, Poundstone said. Citing the complexity of the case and the stakes for the defendants, he added, “All of us were not sleeping well, waking up in the middle of the night.”
But the jury members departed on good terms, he said. And on the whole, he’s satisfied that justice was done.
Poundstone and the other jurors found Harris and Retherford guilty of one charge of conspiracy.
Harris also was found guilty on three of 26 charges of preparing false tax returns for clients, each of whom paid $50,000 initiation fees and $3,000 annual dues to be members of the defendants’ Tower Executive Resources Ltd. Retherford was found guilty on two of those charges.
The jury found the men not guilty on the most of the remaining 26 charges but returned no verdict on several counts.
No verdicts were returned on charges of false reports of foreign bank accounts.
The jury also did not return a verdict on a single charge of conspiracy against a third man, Robert Bedford of Seminole, Fla.
It was the sheer number of counts that slowed the jury, said foreman Poundstone, who wondered whether the government could have simplified the case by filing fewer charges.
Harris, 63, of Elizabeth, faces up to 10 years in prison, assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas O’Rourke said in court. Retherford, 70, of Ca on City, faces a slightly lesser sentence.
A hearing is set for 1 p.m. today to determine whether Harris, who is free on bond until sentencing, should be jailed immediately. O’Rourke argued Wednesday that Harris is a flight risk.
Among Tower’s members was Paul Bekins, former president of Bekins Moving and Storage in Seattle. Bekins pleaded guilty in September to evading tax payments of $1.3 million and testified against the Tower defendants.
Harris, Retherford and Bedford were indicted in November 2002 based on a probe by the Internal Revenue Service.
Staff writer Greg Griffin can be reached at 303-820-1241 or ggriffin@denverpost.com.
