Two tax attorneys and an insurance agent who were convicted for a fraudulent scheme resulting in over $4 million in costs to the IRS have been denied their motions for acquittal. Prosecutors have argued that the evidence supporting their conviction is sufficient, a standpoint echoed by a federal judge in North Carolina.
In this case, a jury had previously determined that attorneys Michael Kohn and Catherine Chollet from Missouri, and a North Carolina-based insurance broker David Simmons, were guilty of designing an illegal tax scheme with inflated business expenses. This, they promoted to their clients as a method of defrauding the United States.
Their motions for acquittal were officially denied by the US District Court for the Western District of North Carolina on Monday. Specifically, the defendants had asked Judge Kenneth D. Bell to acquit them, a request that was now outrightly refused.
Details of the ruling can be accessed here.