Kansas: Attorney and businessman hide over $700,000 from IRS

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In re re Minneman, 143 F.3d 274 (Kan. 2008), Clarence Punke and his attorney Joseph Minneman conspired together to hide over $790,000 dollars from the IRS by stating on Punke’s tax forms that he only made $100,000 a year for the years 1989-1991. Punke then bragged about how he was defrauding the IRS to a co-worker Sue Shank. Punke told his attorney Minneman to put the funds in other people’s names to hide them from the government, since Minneman was familiar with the state tax laws, this was beneficial to Punke to hide his funds efficiently.
Punke and Minneman were involved in a case together previously when they were involved in a bankruptcy case together, and this was how they met, in 1981. Punke was involved with not paying taxes in 1981 as well when he had a business called the Punke Bros. Inc. which as a company dissolved in 1983. Then Punke started up a new business called the Midwest Certified Welding and Testing (MCWT). Minneman handled the taxes for the first few years of the business, and then from then on Punke forwarded most of his income made from the company to Minneman, or Punke’s wife Brenda.
In 1991, Punke filed an amended tax return to claim substantial casualty losses, which caught the IRS’s attention which lead to a civil audit. In 1992, the IRS questioned Minneman about his involvement with Punke. Punke states that the reason why he was using different bank accounts with all the money that he was making because when he filed for bankruptcy, it was hard for him to open new bank accounts with the bankruptcy on his record.
In 1996, both Punke and Minneman were indicted by the Grand Jury on charges of conspiracy to impede the IRS. Punke was also charged with filing false tax returns for 1989, 1990 and 1991. Minneman received a 30 month sentence, along with 3 years of supervised release, and also to pay $25,000 dollars of restitution to the IRS. Punke got a 21 month sentence and 3 years supervised release, and also ordered him to pay $154,800 dollars restitution to the IRS.