A Little Rock couple — John Dunn, 64, and his wife, Wendy, 51 — were sentenced in federal court today on tax fraud charges.

John Dunn got a 33-month sentence on a felony conspiracy count and was ordered to pay more than $437,000 restitution. Wendy Dunn got five years’ probation on misdemeanor charges of willfully failing to file and was ordered to pay more than $127,000.

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A release from the U.S. attorney said they’d operated a “quasi financial consulting business” since at least 2002, but failed to file business or personal tax returns. From the release:

During an interview in September 2011, John Dunn lied to federal agents when he said he timely filed his federal income tax returns each and every year and accused the IRS of hiding his returns. John Dunn also falsely told federal agents that neither he nor
his wife had been employed for many years, but that a family inheritance allowed them to live in their $500,000 residence.

John Dunn utilized a false social security number on his bank accounts to disguise his ownership and made numerous false and frivolous complaints against IRS employees in order to thwart the IRS’ collection and investigative efforts.

John Dunn filed bankruptcy, and with the assistance of co-defendant Nina Sue Williams, created fake tax returns with small amounts of income that he backdated and provided to the United States Bankruptcy Court to conceal his business activities and true
earnings. In addition, John Dunn wrote the word “Gift” in the memo line of client checks he received for services in order to disguise the true nature of the payments. He also attempted to persuade these clients to make false statements to federal investigators to prevent his prosecution.

The Dunns pleaded guilty earlier. Williams was sentenced earlier to 24 months in prison.

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