Gleckman v. United States

80 F.2d 394, 16 A.F.T.R. (P-H) 1425, 1935 U.S. App. LEXIS 3297
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedNovember 26, 1935
Docket10203, 10302
StatusPublished
Cited by93 cases

This text of 80 F.2d 394 (Gleckman v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Gleckman v. United States, 80 F.2d 394, 16 A.F.T.R. (P-H) 1425, 1935 U.S. App. LEXIS 3297 (8th Cir. 1935).

Opinion

*396 WOODROUGH, Circuit Judge.

Appellant was convicted for willfully attempting to evade and defeat a large, part of his income taxes for the year 1929 (under the first count of the indictment) and for the year. 1930 (under the second count), by making false returns of his income for those years and paying thereon less than the amount of income tax due from him to the government, in violation of 26 U.S.C.A. § 2146 (b) [now 26 U.S.C.A. § 145 and note]. He contends that the evidence was insufficient to sustain a conviction- on either of the first two counts of the indictment upon which he was found guilty and sentenced to eighteen months imprisonment and $5,000 fine and costs, the sentences to run concurrently and not consecutively.

It appears that for many years prior to and during the calendar year 1929, Leon M. Gleckman was a citizen of the United States and was a resident of and had his principal place of business at St. Paul, Minn. Prior to 1926, he had never made any returns for income tax purposes, but in 1928 he made returns for the years 1925, 1926, and 1927, showing a lump sum net income without details of $15,000 for each year and paid tax thereon. During 1929 he was a married man, living with his wife, and had three dependents, and his regular annual accounting period for income .tax purposes was on the basis of the calendar year and not on the basis of the fiscal year. He was the president of and a stockholder in the Republic Finance Company, a corporation, and drew a salary from that corporation during the year. He also received a profit from sales of stocks and bonds and received rents from property owned by him. These items of salary, stock sales profits, and rents totaled something over $11,000, from which he was entitled to deductions on account of expenses, interest, taxes, and charitable contributions. He made a sworn joint return for himself and his wife of gross income $11,167.78, and deductions of $992.09, leaving net income $10,175.69, calling -for $49.02 total tax, which he paid.

In the year 1930 he drew a salary from the Republic Finance Company, received rents from property owned by him, and derived profits from the sale of stocks and bonds; the three items of income amounting to $9,236.56. During this year, however, before any return for tax was made, a tabulation was obtained from the banks where Mr. Gleckman did business, reflecting that many deposits had been entered to his credit during the year, amounting in the aggregate to a large sum of money, and on account of such bank -deposits Mr. Gleckman added to the sworn joint return of himself and his wife for the year “income from business, $5,286.53.” This sum added to the above $9,236.56 made the return for the year 1930 $14,-523.09, from which he took deductions on account of interest, taxes, and contributions in the sum of $2,091.25, leaving taxable net income $12,431.84, producing a total tax of $185.57, which he paid.

An internal revenue auditor, Mr. Schall, was subsequently assigned to make an audit of the returns for the years 1929 and 1930 and called upon Mr. Gleckman for his books and papers. Mr. Gleckman had kept no records of account of his business reflecting his true income or affording means for the computation thereof, but as he had done business with the Foshay State Bank and the Commercial State Bank, he directed Mr. Tankenoff, a public accountant, and the supervising bookkeeper of the Republic Finance Company, to assist the government’s agent to get the bank records and to aid in checking the taxable income. They did not obtain the deposit slips from the Foshay 'State Bank covering all of the year 1929, but had the record of deposits in that bank for the period from August 23, 1929, to November 1, 1929. The Foshay' Bank having failed about that time, Mr. Gleckman’s account in the Commercial State Bank became more active and they had the record of numerous deposits in his account at that bank during November and December, 1929. Mr. Tankenoff and the government agent worked together for a period of several weeks attempting to trace to their source the many items which Mr. Gleckman had deposited in the banks in order to eliminate all items which 'were receipts from capital or other nontaxable transactions. By the production of checks and otherwise, many items shown to have been deposited in the bank account of Mr. Gleckman were explained as arising out of capital or nontaxable transactions and were eliminated. Mr. Tankenoff and the government agent each made up a work sheet covering the *397 numerous items considered by them and arrived at a balance of $18,036 additional net income for the year 1929 over the amount which had been returned for that year by Mr. Gleckman. The agent proposed excess assessment in that amount, and although Mr. Gleckman said that if he had more time and wanted to go to a great deal more expense he could remember more of the hank deposits, and his attorney declared, in his presence, that Mr. Gleckman did not owe the additional tax; Mr. Gleckman paid the proposed deficiency tax assessment, together with added negligence penalty of 5 per cent, before final assessment, was made. Before the auditor Schall had completed his audit of Mr. Gleckman’s return for the year 1930, he was succeeded by another auditor, Mr. Sullivan, and the subsequent investigations revealed very numerous receipts of money by Mr. Gleckman and deposits made by him during each of the years 1929 and 1930, aggregating large sums which had not been disclosed by him. This prosecution followed.

In the first count of the indictment, which charges the willful attempt to evade the income tax for the year 1929, it is alleged that the “defendant had and received gross income” for that year “amounting to more than $5,000.00, to-wit: $164,924.38, derived as follows:

Salary $ 7,475.00
Income from business 153,539.78
Unidentifiable income deposited in banks (eliminating transfers of funds, loan transactions, salary and rent items):
Fosliay State Bank $ 71,838.04
Commercial State Bank 21,068.54
Received under false, fictitious and assumed name of Abraham Wynehouso 15,000.00
Collected through Journal Square National Bank, Jersey City, New Jersey 7,500.6©
Unidentifiable income not deposited i-n banks and disbursed through:
Havana, Cuba 5,000.00
Bennett & Co. 5,800.00
Sam Fink 15,175.00
Republic Finance Company 13,000.00
Total . $154,381.58
Less business expenses 841.79
$153,539.79
Income from partnership — University Cleaners & Dyers 680.87
Rents 1,160.94
Bale of Stocks and Bonds 2,067.78
$164.924.38.” Total laoomo

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Bluebook (online)
80 F.2d 394, 16 A.F.T.R. (P-H) 1425, 1935 U.S. App. LEXIS 3297, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gleckman-v-united-states-ca8-1935.