Ex-Casino Advisor Gets Probation in Tax Case
A former political consultant to the Bicycle Club casino has been sentenced to seven years’ probation and 2,000 hours of community service for tax evasion and forgery.
Superior Court Judge Jacqueline Connors also this week ordered Charles G. “Jerry” Westlund Jr. to pay $240,000 in back taxes, interest and penalties, said California Franchise Tax Board spokesman Jim Shepherd.
Westlund, 33, was found guilty in September on six counts of evading state income tax and two counts of forgery. Those charges, according to Shepherd, stemmed from Westlund’s failure to report more than $900,000 in consulting fees he received from the casino and political action committees in 1994, 1995 and 1996, along with his forgery of tax documents.
Westlund was acquitted of charges that he embezzled money from the card club.
Westlund, a Long Beach resident, helped run successful initiative campaigns to block new card clubs that would have competed with the Bicycle Club. He had faced a maximum seven-year prison sentence.
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