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Cleveland lawyer sentenced in tax case
YOUNGSTOWN
A prominent Cleveland lawyer and former president of the Ohio State Bar Association has been sentenced to a year and one day in federal prison and fined $10,000 for evading $75,385 in taxes by filing false federal income-tax returns.
U.S. District Judge Benita Y. Pearson imposed the sentence Tuesday on Atty. Leslie W. Jacobs, 67, a Harvard Law School graduate, who earlier had pleaded guilty to filing false personal federal income tax returns for 2004 through 2007.
Jacobs will self-report to prison at a time and place to be determined by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons.
The prison sentence will be followed by a year of supervised release, the first four months of which is to be on electronically monitored house arrest.
Jacobs delivered a $75,385 restitution check to the IRS at his sentencing.
“I am profoundly ashamed,” Jacobs told the judge. “Until I was charged in this case, I had a reputation that my family could be proud of,” he added.
“I want to apologize to everyone I’ve disappointed by being here,” Jacobs said, referring to his family, friends, clients and to Judge Pearson.
“You not only bent the law, sir, but you did so until it broke,” the judge said.
Federal prosecutors argued for a prison term in the high-end of the 10- to 16-month federal sentencing guideline range for Jacobs’ offense because they said he lied to IRS agents during the audit and criminal probe that led to the tax-falsification charge.
However, defense lawyers noted that Jacobs has no prior criminal record and said half of Jacobs’ sentence could consist of probation, including house arrest.
The defense lawyers cited his exemplary law practice, professional organization and community-service record, including his presidency of OSBA in 1986-87.
The defense submitted to Judge Pearson more than 150 letters praising Jacobs and urging leniency in sentencing.
Among the letter writers were a former Ohio Supreme Court administrator, two retired federal judges, four former American Bar Association presidents, nine former state bar association presidents, and nine former metropolitan bar association presidents.
Federal prosecutors said Jacobs fraudulently deducted about $103,000 in purported business expenses for which his law firm, Thompson-Hine LLP, reimbursed him and that he denied to an IRS agent that he had been reimbursed.
“The lies to IRS agents were extremely serious,” and they “compounded this matter,” John M. Siegel, an assistant U.S. attorney prosecuting the case, told the judge. Although acknowledging that Jacobs has done “very impressive positive things,” Siegel characterized Jacobs’ conduct in the tax matter as “willful and blatant.”
Over four years, Jacobs deducted $24,500 worth of private-fishing-club dues as law-firm business expenses, knowing that club dues are not deductible, according to assistant U.S. attorneys prosecuting the case.