Tax Fraud-related Convictions Affirmed

U.S. v. Ray, 2018 WL 3716080 (8/6/18) (Colo.) (published) - Mr Ray was convicted of conspiracy to defraud the US, five counts of aiding in the preparation of a false tax return, and two counts of submitting a false tax return connected with his tax prep business, Cheapertaxes LLC. The Tenth rejected his claims as follows:
(1) the government never lodged a detainer with Colorado and thus did not violate the Interstate Agreement on Detainers Act.
(2) there was no proof of facts establishing actual or presumptive prosecutorial vindictiveness leading to extra superseding indictment counts.
(3) Ray waived his speedy trial act claim by failing to raise it in his pretrial motion to dismiss and the Tenth says it would have rejected such a claim on the merits anyhow.
(4) Ray did not establish a due process violation based on the government's destruction of a letter he wrote to the IRS. He did not show either that the letter would have been exculpatory or that the government destroyed it in bad faith.
(5) the district court did not constructively amend the indictment by reading a slightly revised version to the jury; the Tenth concludes the district court actually narrowed the scope of the count at issue.