An SF software engineering manager was found guilty on three counts of tax evasion for overstating his medical tax deductions by more than $1 million for an appendectomy that he had nine years prior to the deductions.
The latest federal tax fraud conviction from the US District Court in San Francisco finds 53-year-old SF software engineering manager Dwayne Lorenzo Richardson guilty of tax evasion, to the tune of more than $1 million. While Richarson had been pulling in $1.2 million a year from his high-paying software job, he was making up medical expenses to the tune of $945,000 for an appendectomy.
The appendectomy was from 2010, though Richardson made deductions for the process in 2017, 2018, and 2019. He got refunds over those three years to the total of $165,000, though according to KPIX, court records “showed that he paid a few hundred dollars for treatment.”
IRS agents noticed something funny about this, and audited Richardson twice over his deductions of $1.1 million in medical expenses.
“As Richardson explained to one of his representatives in the tax audit, Richardson deducted nonexistent medical expenses from his taxes for multiple years because he had not been ‘caught’ the first time he did it,” according to a statement from the US Attorney’s Office.
His sentencing is set for January 14, 2025. Richardson faces a max of five years in prison and a $100,000 fine for each of the three counts, though federal sentencing guidelines will likely produce a less severe sentence.
Image: Antony Z. via Yelp
