Businessman Given Probation in Tax Case

A Tarzana man has been sentenced to 22 months probation, four months home detention and fined $11,000 for filing a false federal income tax return, authorities said Wednesday.

James B. Dunnigan, 61, was sentenced Monday in U.S. District Court by Judge Consuelo Marshal, said Gary Tang, a spokesman for the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation Division in Los Angeles.

Dunnigan pleaded guilty earlier this year to failing to report more than $118,000 in income he received in 1990 from his construction business and rental properties, Tang said.

Dunnigan also acknowledged in open court that he failed to report more than $80,600 in income in 1991 and more than $18,600 in income in 1992, Tang said. As part of a plea agreement, Tang said, Dunnigan did not face prosecution on the 1991 and 1992 tax violations.

Federal investigators discovered Dunnigan had falsified his federal returns during a larger FBI probe into illegally obtained, federally-backed loans, Tang said.

The FBI did not bring loan fraud charges against Dunnigan, Tang said, but the IRS moved forward after it discovered Dunnigan had filed false tax returns three years in a row.