TAX NEWS - June 2010

Former Tigard lawyer and husband guilty of making off with $1 million in tax evasion scheme

The IRS warned a former Tigard lawyer and her husband to stop selling illegal tax-shelter advice, and the U.S. Department of Justice filed in injunction to put the business to a halt.

But Micaela and Tony Dutson didn't stand down.

A Portland jury found the Dutsons guilty last week of a litany of crimes, including obstructing the Internal Revenue Service, conspiring to defraud the IRS, failing to file tax returns and advising a client to file a false tax return.

The couple made more than $1 million from a tax evasion scheme, which they ran out of Micaela Dutson's law office, according to the U.S. attorney's office for the district of Oregon. They promoted and sold abusive tax trusts for years before moving to Arizona in 2003, prosecutors said.

Records show that Micaela Dutson held an Oregon law license from 1992 to 2002, when she resigned. She and her husband committed several of their crimes during that time. A jury in U.S. District Judge Anna J. Brown's courtroom found them guilty last Thursday.

Prosecutors say the Dutsons advised clients to file frivolous lawsuits against IRS employees, a form of harassment and intimidation they also employed. When IRS agents told the couple they were under criminal investigation, the Dutsons filed a $1 trillion lien in California against IRS employees and Department of Justice attorneys.

"Through years of obstruction and deceit, the Dutsons ran a scame to profiteer from obstructing the IRS -- leaving the rest of us to foot the bill for public services ranging from highways to environmental projects to the military," acting U.S. Attorney Dwight C. Holton said in a written statement. "Now the sham is over and they will pay the price for their fraud."

The Dutsons are scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 20.