A federal judge has sentenced a 75-year-old oral surgeon to 18 months in prison on Internal Revenue Service fraud charges, authorities say.
U.S. District Judge Raymond Moore sentenced Jerold R. Sorensen of Fresno, Calif., after a jury conviction in June of obstructing and impeding the IRS, according to a news release by first assistant U.S. attorney Robert Troyer and Stephen Boyd, an IRS criminal investigation special agent in charge.
Moore ordered Sorensen to repay $2 million of back taxes and fined him $100,000.
Sorensen disguised millions of dollars of personal costs, including the purchase of homes as business expenses, according to court records.
Sorensen was indicted by a federal grand jury in Denver on Nov. 20 and convicted June 16.
Between 2000 and 2007, the California surgeon and dentist reduced — with the assistance of Denver attorney Eva Melissa Sugar — , according to Jeffrey Dorschner, spokesman for U.S. Attorney John Walsh. Sugar, who pleaded guilty in August to tax fraud, faces sentencing in October.
Sugar helped Sorensen, who also faces federal criminal charges, establish pure trust organizations, which he used as “vehicles to help disguise Sorensen’s and his son’s receipt of business and personal income,” according to Dorschner.
Sorensen acted as if the PTOs owned his personal residence, his cars, the building where he conducted his dental practice and the equipment used by that practice.
“Those thinking about promoting or participating in abusive tax schemes should think twice; there is no secret formula that can eliminate a person’s tax obligations,” Boyd said in a statement.
