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Court reverses below-guidelines sentence as substantively unreasonable

By Candace Hom, Melinda Ghilardi, Nancy Rimmer, Sarah Gannett, Renee Pietropaolo and Tieffa Harper

In its 2-1 decision in United States v. Tomko, Case No. 05-4997, the Third Circuit vacated a probation-only sentence for tax evasion as substantively unreasonable. Judge Fisher wrote for the majority. Judge Smith wrote a forceful dissent.Facts: Tomko, a construction company owner, built a large, well-appointed new home for himself. He asked the subcontractors who were working on the house to falsify their invoices so that it would look like their work on his house was really done on projects for his construction company. He then paid for the work through his construction company and had the company write off the work from its taxes as a business expense. Tomko did not report the company?s paying for his home as income on his tax returns. He subsequently pleaded guilty to one count of tax evasion in violation of 26 U...continue to full post

Full post as published by Third Circuit Blog on August 28, 2007 (boomark / email).