VENTURA : Businessman Pleads Guilty in Tax Case
A Ventura man pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles on Monday to a charge of falsifying his tax return to avoid paying more than $8,000 in taxes, federal prosecutors said.
Arnold D. Butler, 50, who was a partner in a Bakersfield oil and gas company, admitted misreporting his income by $29,700 in 1989, Assistant U.S. Atty. Warrington Parker said. The additional tax on that income amounted to $8,788, Parker said.
Internal Revenue Service agents in Oxnard, who investigated and presented the case to the U.S. Attorney, declined to say how they discovered the fraud.
“He got money from his corporation that he chose not to report,” IRS Special Agent Paula Lurvey said. “It doesn’t have to be a lot of money for it still to be wrong.”
Butler, who could not be reached for comment Monday afternoon, faces up to three years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 when he is sentenced July 19.
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