The federal prosecutors, defence lawyers for Nicole Burdett, and Jason Williams’ district attorney all concur that Henry Timothy is a tax cheat.
For the law office of Burdett and Williams, Timothy is the tax preparer who filed false tax returns.
The question of whether Williams and Burdett purposefully planned to commit tax fraud when they asked Timothy to handle their taxes will now be debated by attorneys.
Before a jury of nine women and three men on Tuesday, both sides presented their opening arguments.
Mike Magner, Burdett’s lawyer, asserts that his client’s only mistake was believing a CPA who was not one. He displayed a copy of Timothy’s letterhead to the court, on which he falsely identifies himself as a CPA.
He also displayed Timothy’s LinkedIn profile, where he listed his undergraduate accounting degree from the University of New Orleans and his master’s in business administration from the same institution. Timothy doesn’t hold either of those degrees, according to Magner.
Williams kept documents for a very long time after the IRS had told him to, according to Lisa Wayne, the defence attorney.
The jury, according to her, will learn how Burdett and Williams would “hand over every receipt, every business item, every CC charge, a ledger, a profit and loss statement, every year.”
“It concerns two people who did not know better than misplacing their trust. Relationships are at stake here, Wayne said.
They claim that Timothy was chosen by Williams and Burdett to prepare their taxes because he was “a family friend of the Burdett’s” and because he does so for about 1500 people each year.
But according to the government, Burdette and Williams picked Timothy because they were aware that he was a tax cheat and would falsify the returns without being caught.
Williams allegedly owed about $90,000 in taxes at the time Timothy was hired, according to the government.
Burdett’s lawyer, Mike Magner, says his client’s only error was trusting a CPA who wasn’t one. Magner claims this. It was shown to the court a copy of Timothy’s letterhead, on which he falsely claimed to be an accountant,
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Assistant US Attorney Kelly Uebinger said in opening remarks, “Mr Timothy did their bidding, gave them no pushback.”
She claimed that the two conspired to inflate their outlays, even corresponding back and forth with Timothy to figure out how to best reduce their tax obligation on their Schedule C form. Taxes were avoided, saving the couple a significant sum.
“Mr Timothy made the “how” of how it was done in this case, there’s no doubt about that. He chose which personal expense to include in Schedule C. However, why was it done? According to Uebinger, it was carried out because it was profitable for them.
The jury seemed to be being prepared by both sides for potentially complex financial and tax evidence.
