United States v. Reesor

10 F. App'x 297
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedMay 7, 2001
DocketNos. 98-6092, 98-6310, 98-6311
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 10 F. App'x 297 (United States v. Reesor) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Reesor, 10 F. App'x 297 (6th Cir. 2001).

Opinion

PER CURIAM.

Defendants Reesor and Tanner were convicted by a jury of making false claims to the Internal Revenue Service and of participation in a conspiracy to make false claims, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 286, 287. Tanner was separately tried and convicted of bankruptcy fraud, 18 U.S.C. § 152; he was simultaneously sentenced for both convictions. Reesor was sentenced to 24 months in prison in July 1998 and is currently on supervised release. Tanner was sentenced to 63 months in prison in August 1998 for the tax violations; his 37-month sentence under the bankruptcy laws runs concurrently with his other sentence. Both Reesor and Tanner appeal their convictions and sentences on several grounds. For the reasons that follow, we affirm the jury verdicts and the rulings of the district court.

I

In the early 1990s, Tanner and Reesor were Memphis businessmen engaged, inter alia, in the home improvement business. They formed a corporation called “Federal Tax Assistance” (“FTA”) in June 1992, which trial evidence showed was used to carry out an extensive, albeit cumbersome, scheme to defraud the IRS. Defendants engaged people to solicit welfare recipients living in public housing to file false tax returns, claiming an earned-income credit (“EIC”) to which they were not entitled. Paid $5 a name, the solicitors would collect information such as social security numbers and get individuals to sign a form purporting to be a power of attorney labeled “Application for EIC.” The information would then be converted into a tax return claiming self-employment on Schedule C and an earned income tax credit in varying amounts. Because the returns were filed with return addresses controlled by defendants, Tanner and Reesor re[301]*301ceived the wrongfully awarded refund checks, which they cashed.

Tanner and Reesor asked a woman named Caroline Bradshaw, a friend of Tanner’s and a local Avon representative, to help prepare the returns based on information solicited from the housing residents. Other individuals were also hired to prepare the returns. Bradshaw testified that she cashed several Treasury checks that she received, already endorsed, from Reesor and Tanner. The defendants netted $14,224.67 from the operation, although the sum total of refunds claimed through FTA was $287,632.34, because the majority of the refunds were rejected by the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) during processing, often because the Social Security numbers on the tax forms were invalid.

The “tax assistance” appears to have continued through the summer and fall of 1992, generating EIC claims for the 1991 tax year. In October 1992, IRS criminal investigators began interviewing defendants, their suspicion aroused by the hundreds of “self-employed” people purportedly living at 6880 Hillshire Dr., Number 20 in Memphis, Tennessee or using P.O. Box 11806, and engaged in such businesses as painting, parking, “freelance,” “housewife,” and child care. Reesor and Tanner were interviewed a number of times, and an indictment was filed in 1997 charging them with 30 counts of filing false claims and causing such claims to be filed.

Also during the early 1990s, Tanner engaged in questionable business dealings of a somewhat different variety. Just after the active operations of Federal Tax Assistance were drawing to a close in November 1992, Tanner filed a voluntary bankruptcy petition in the Western District of Tennessee under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code. He refiled the petition on January 11, 1994 under Chapter 7. This petition included a schedule disclosing Tanner’s real property on which was listed one item, a triple-mortgaged personal residence in Germantown, Tennessee held in tenancy by the entirety with his then-wife. A trustee named George Stevenson was appointed to handle the bankruptcy. When Tanner did not appear for the required creditor’s meeting, the case was dismissed. Stevenson, however, had apparently learned that Tanner had undisclosed real property in Missouri. Acting on this tip, Stevenson moved to reopen the proceedings in order to seek further assets from Tanner. It turned out that the Missouri property had been held by Tanner for many years and was connected to a lawsuit in which Tanner had received $150,000 by settlement, terminating his property interest on January 12, 1994; the lawsuit was dismissed pursuant to the settlement on January 18, 1994. The lawsuit, land, and proceeds of the settlement were not disclosed in the bankruptcy petition, nor was any relevant interest listed as a debt owed to Tanner. This failure to disclose assets, along with miscellaneous other misstatements on the petition, formed the basis for a set of charges against Tanner alone, alleging violations of 18 U.S.C. § 152, which appeared in the February 1997 indictment as Counts 31-35.

Trial was held on the tax charges in April 1998. Prior to trial, Reesor had sought to sever his trial based on the inclusion of those counts not involving him. However, when the government decided to pursue the bankruptcy charges separately, this motion was dismissed as moot. Prior to voir dire, Reesor “renewed” his motion for severance because he could not inquire about associations jurors had with the name “Tanner.” Reesor and Tanner were represented by separate counsel, and both testified. When Tanner testified, he was impeached by the government with evi[302]*302dence of his 1986 convictions for credit card fraud, which arose from a magazine solicitation business he was then running. When it was determined these convictions were going to come into evidence, Reesor “renewed” yet again his motion for severance, but this was denied. Tanner’s essential theory was that false information was given to him by the solicitors, that he was ignorant of tax law and was not aware of the illegality of his acts, and that he fully intended to give the checks over to the claimants but had not gotten around to it yet. Reesor’s theory was that FTA was Tanner’s operation, that he didn’t know much about it, and that he had been misled by Tanner into believing it was legal.

During the trial, Reesor attempted to bring in information about his codefendant’s brother, William Tanner,1 only being dissuaded from doing so by a stern warning (outside the presence of the jury) that threatened him with contempt of court. At this point, Tanner sought a mistrial based on the alleged tainting of the jury; this was denied. Reesor was acquitted of some charges (each of which alleged a different false claim on behalf of a particular solicited claimant) and was convicted of others. Tanner was convicted on all counts.

A separate trial was held on the bankruptcy charges in July 1998. Tanner presented a theory that he had simply been confused by the bankruptcy form and the requirements of disclosure, and had not acted with the requisite criminal intent to defraud. The jury found Tanner guilty on all counts. Tanner then moved to consolidate his sentencing for both sets of convictions.

Just prior to his sentencing on August 31, 1998, Tanner filed a motion for a new trial of tax charges based on newly discovered evidence.

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Bluebook (online)
10 F. App'x 297, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-reesor-ca6-2001.