The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California issued a press release last week reporting a conviction of a former tax attorney. Lloyd Irving Taylor was a California licensed tax attorney and CPA, who probably should have known better, but apparently committed several crimes as part of an overall scheme to evade taxes, for which he was ordered to pay over $2.2 million in restitution.
At trial, the government showed that Taylor stole identities of deceased children and used them to obtain passports. He used those IDs to open nominee accounts to hide his income and assets from the IRS. He also fabricated over a dozen religious institutions and opened nominee accounts with them as well. Unfortunately, nothing seemed sacred – not kids, not churches, and (gasp) not the most blessed book of all – the Internal Revenue Code.
In addition to the IRS Criminal Investigation Division, the misuse of passports also brought the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security bearing down on Taylor.