A 58-year-old Battle Ground man was sentenced Wednesday to one year in federal prison after pleading guilty to evading $1.5 million in taxes.
Thomas A. Rennie, formerly of Portland, was also ordered to three years of supervised release and to pay restitution in full to the IRS for evading payment of employment and personal income taxes, according to a U.S. Attorney’s Office District of Oregon news release.
Prosecutors, citing court documents, say Rennie operated a car detailing business in Portland for 28 years, and a dog training business in Washington since 2015. They say he knowingly and intentionally evaded paying taxes related to the businesses from 2005 to 2017, specifically employment taxes, personal income taxes and corporate taxes.
“Rennie’s efforts to evade the payment of his taxes included his failure to maintain proper business books and records; using business bank accounts and a nonprofit entity’s bank account to pay personal expenses; concealing ownership of personal assets by placing title to these assets in the names of nominee entities; concealing the income from the sale of one of his companies by placing the proceeds in bank accounts held in the names of nominees; and making false statements to an IRS revenue officer,” prosecutors said.
Rennie previously pleaded guilty to a single count of tax evasion in December.
