Pa. man, 71, gets prison for lottery tax evasion

Pa. man, 71, gets prison for lottery tax evasion

PITTSBURGH (AP) — A 71-year-old Pennsylvania man will spend a year in federal prison and pay a $3,000 fine for evading $132,000 in income tax on $520,000 worth of Pennsylvania Lottery winnings.

Prosecutors in Pittsburgh say Sherman Friend, of McClellandtown, has been angry ever since he won a car in a 2007 fire department raffle and learned he had to pay income tax on it, even though he gave it to a friend.

So when Friend bought 208 winning Big 4 Pennsylvania Lottery tickets in December 2009 he tried to avoid taxes by having 40 people cash in the tickets. Friend paid the ticket cashers about 10 percent of each ticket’s $2,500 value.

The judge who sentenced Friend Thursday intended to fine him $30,000 but lowered that because Friend has already repaid more than $90,000 of his tax debt.