Businessman Fined in Income Tax Fraud

A Ventura man was sentenced to three years probation and ordered to pay $18,000 in fines after pleading guilty in federal court in Los Angeles to falsifying his tax return, a prosecutor said Monday.

Arnold D. Butler, 51, could have received three years in federal prison for filing a falsified tax return to avoid paying more than $8,000 in taxes, said Assistant U.S. Atty. Warrington Parker.

“The court did what it thought was fair and I think that’s sufficient,” Parker said Monday. “He does have a felony conviction.”

Butler was a partner in a Bakersfield oil and gas company, Parker said. In May he admitted in federal court that he underreported his income by $29,700 in 1989.