Man Found Guilty Of Tax Evasion Retired Contractor Didn’t Report More Than $1 Million In Profits

A retired Spokane contractor who failed to report more than $1 million in stock profits over five years was convicted Wednesday of filing false income tax returns.

Richard E. Peters, 64, faces sentencing May 1 after a background report is prepared for U.S. District Judge Frem Nielsen.

He will remain free without bond until sentencing.

After hearing six days of testimony, a federal jury spent two days considering the evidence before finding Peters guilty of five counts of subscribing to a false income tax return.

He was indicted by a grand jury last August on a charge of cheating on his income taxes for the tax years 1987 through 1991.

Peters paid $200 in federal income taxes in 1987, and no taxes during the other four years, the jury was told.

In 1989, Peters told the Internal Revenue Service his adjusted gross income was $4,767.

But in that same year, the jury was told, he collected $283,522 from sales of stock in Vancouver, British Columbia.

He earned $372,380 in stock sales in 1987, while telling the IRS he earned only $11,562.

Peters reported negative incomes in 1990 and 1991, when his combined income from stock sales those two years was $322,209.

Peters testified that the stock profits didn’t go into his pocket, but to a Swiss trading group that he represented.

He couldn’t identify members of the trading group on crossexamination by Justice Department attorney Brian Bailey.

While undergoing that crossexamination last week, Peters collapsed and fell from the witness chair.

He was taken by ambulance to a local hospital, and the trial was briefly recessed. It resumed after doctors determined Peters didn’t suffer a serious medical condition.

His attorney asked for a mistrial, but that was denied by the judge.