Feds indict prominent Oregon criminal defense lawyer Gary Bertoni on tax charges

By Bryan Denson

Prominent Oregon criminal defense lawyer Gary B. Bertoni was indicted in U.S. District Court Wednesday for allegedly failing to pay employment taxes.

"If convicted," Department of Justice lawyers wrote, "Bertoni faces a statutory maximum sentence of 50 years in prison, a maximum fine of $2.5 million and restitution to the IRS."

A grand jury in Portland handed up the 10-count indictment against Bertoni, accusing him of willfully failing to collect, truthfully account for, and pay taxes withheld from his employees.

In all, the government alleges, Bertoni failed to pay $184,791 in payroll taxes from 2009 to 2011.

Bertoni has retained noted Portland defense lawyer Ron Hoevet, who will join him at his arraignment on the charges early next month.

"I did some research," Hoevet said Wednesday evening. "In the last 15 years in the (U.S.) District of Oregon, there's only one other case where someone has been charged for willful failure to pay over his employment taxes. I think Gary's being targeted because he's a criminal defense lawyer and he's had a scrape with the (state) bar."

The government alleges that from January 2009 through at least July 2012, Bertoni caused his law firm to make thousands of dollars of expenditures for his own personal benefit as he failed to pay over to the IRS payroll taxes that he withheld from his employees.

"For example," the indictment alleges, "Bertoni caused (his) law firm to make payments to Bertoni's personal bank accounts totaling more than $300,000 during the 2009, 2010, and 2011 calendar years."
Wednesday's charges were not the first time Bertoni has found himself in hot water.

The Oregon State Bar suspended Bertoni's license for 150 days in 2012 for mismanaging his client's money.

Before that, in 2011, the Multnomah County District Attorney's Office declined to prosecute Bertoni for allegedly falsifying business records to cover up his use of clients' money, saying the statute of limitations had expired.

The U.S. Department of Justice assigned lawyers with its Tax Division to handle the case. The likely reason for that is because it might appear to be a conflict of interest for prosecutors in the U.S.
Attorney's Office for Oregon to prosecute a lawyer who sometimes appears in federal court on behalf of criminal defendants.

Full Article & Source:
Feds indict prominent Oregon criminal defense lawyer Gary Bertoni on tax charges