Sentencing — tax fraud

Listen to this article

United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit

Criminal

Sentencing — tax fraud

Where the defendant failed to report income his wife received from criminal activity, his sentence was properly enhanced pursuant to U.S.S.G. 2T1.1(b)(1).

“As in Oestrich, McKinney and his wife conspired to perpetrate a mortgage fraud scheme. Chamethele McKinney falsely represented where she worked in order to obtain the home loan, and her husband, through false employment records, substantiated her representations. They worked together to obtain the $45,000 loan, which they both undisputedly had a duty to report to the IRS, whether via a joint return or by one of them separately. Chamethele McKinney did not report the income, a result foreseeable to McKinney as participant in and beneficiary of the mortgage fraud. He, therefore, had a duty to report the income as well.”

Affirmed.

11-3722 U.S. v. McKinney

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Illinois, Herndon, J., Flaum, J.