Print VersionJuly 16, 2007
HOUSTON REALTOR SENTENCED TO PRISON AND ORDERED TO PAY THOUSANDS IN RESTITUTION TO IRS
(HOUSTON) – Houston realtor Michael Lee Spear has been sentenced to prison and ordered to pay more than $745,000 in restitution to the IRS for failing to pay federal income taxes, United States Attorney Don DeGabrielle announced today.
At a sentencing hearing this morning, U. S. District Judge Kenneth M. Hoyt sentenced Spear to serve 24 months in prison, without parole, and imposed the restitution order. Spear was convicted in October 2006 of conspiring to defeat the lawful functions of the Internal Revenue Service and admitted he had failed to make any payment of his income tax liabilities for tax years 1994 through 1997 and 1999 through 2001 on hundreds of thousands of dollars he earned as a realtor.
According to the plea agreement filed of record in this case, Spear, with the help of a co-conspirator, formed two corporations to attempt to conceal his income and to put his income and assets out of reach of the IRS. Neither corporation issued Spear a form W-2 or 1099 for the income Spear withdrew from the corporations. Spear also wrote letters, according to the record of the case, to two real estate companies with whom he had worked attempting to convince them that he had not earned the income reported on the any forms 1099 issued by the real estate companies. Instead of paying his taxes, Spear admitted via the plea agreement, that he had paid off a friend’s $40,000 loan in December 2001 for a Mercedes Benz.
The investigation leading to the charges was conducted by the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigations. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles J. Escher.
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