Give It a Rest

I peruse Accounting Today's Tax Fraud Blotter to keep up with the goings-on in accounting and tax. (I study these schemes to spot them, not to use them, of course---besides, the crooks got caught!)

The first item caught my eye for non-tax reasons:

Media failed to disclose that he's a Starbucks
customer, too (Providence Journal photo)

Pawtucket, Rhode Island: Former state senator and businessman James E. Doyle II, 47, has been sentenced to two years in prison for engaging in a $74 million dollar check-kiting scheme in which he wrote tens of thousands of worthless checks and failed to report more than $1 million dollars in income.

He admitted that as owner of Doyle Respiratory and Doyle Sleep Solutions he engaged in a fraud during which $74 million in worthless bank transactions were executed in check-kiting schemes through his accounts. He also admitted that for tax years 2013 through 2016, he and his wife failed to report to the IRS more than $1 million dollars in income and failed to pay $305,426 in federal taxes. Doyle executed the scheme daily, at times in excess of 50 transactions per day, including using ATMs to lengthen the time it took for checks to be presented for clearing.

He was also sentenced to three years of supervised release upon completion of his prison term, and ordered to pay $426,707.25 in restitution.

Was Mr. Doyle II another example of perfidy by a Republican businessman and ex-state senator? (Providence Journal: "Doyle, a Democrat representing Pawtucket".) The fact that his political party was never stated in the tax article or in AP/U.S. News is a clue. It's another example of "name that party".

every time a Democrat is caught in misconduct, the media will either “accidentally” forget to mention his party affiliation or will bury it at the tail of the article were [sic] fewer people will see it...On the other hand, when a Republican is caught in a crime his party affiliation either leads the piece or even appears in the very headline of the report.

Some media outlets have begun mentioning the party affiliation of every crooked politician, but just once I'd like to see such an omission for a Republican miscreant.

But back to the original article: "Doyle executed the scheme daily, at times in excess of 50 transactions per day." He seemed to be in panic mode, with checks flying between his accounts. Two years of rest in prison, away from the busy-ness of his world, may actually do him some good.