Tuesday, December 01, 2009
Sizemore indicted in tax case
The Register-Guard: Conservative initiative activist and Oregon gubernatorial candidate Bill Sizemore has been indicted for tax evasion, the state Department of Justice announced Monday.
The grand jury indictment, unsealed last week and made public Monday, resulted from charges filed against Sizemore, 58, and his wife, Cindy Sizemore, 49, both residents of Eagle Crest in Central Oregon. Lawyers for the state allege the Sizemores failed to file tax returns for the years 2006, 2007 and 2008. Bill Sizemore on Monday admitted he had not filed the returns, but said he intends eventually to file them.
The Sizemores are scheduled for a Dec. 7 arraignment in Marion County Circuit Court. Personal income tax evasion is a class C felony. For each of the three counts, the Sizemores, if found guilty, face up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $125,000, not counting the obligation to pay past due taxes plus interest and penalties.
The criminal allegations are the latest in a series of legal woes for Sizemore dating back to 2002, when two Oregon-based teachers unions sued the initiative activist. A jury that year found him in violation of Oregon’s racketeering law, awarding $2.5 million to the unions for what the judge termed a “sham charity” that Sizemore used “for his own personal gain.”
Bill Sizemore said in a telephone interview that he and his wife would both plea not guilty to the tax-evasion charges. He said the couple had estimated their taxes and paid them to the state and the U.S. Internal Revenue Service for 2006 and 2007 and intended to do so later this year for 2008. He said they did not file federal or state income tax returns out of concern that the teachers unions that had sued him would access the documents through court order, and possibly use them to bring additional litigation against him and his wife.
“I don’t want to give a copy of my personal tax return to my worst political enemy,” Sizemore said. “They have no right to see them.”
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