Old Saybrook man pleads guilty to several federal tax offenses

HARTFORD — A man pleaded guilty Tuesday to a six-count superseding indictment charging him with various tax offenses instead of proceeding with a trial which was scheduled to start Wednesday, according to a release from the U.S. attorney’s office.

David Adams, 56, of Old Saybrook, was charged with two counts of tax evasion, three counts of making and subscribing a false tax return and one count of attempting to interfere with the administration of the Internal Revenue Service laws, the release stated.

In the early 1980s, and continuing from 1996 onward, Adams was delinquent in filing his tax returns and paying amounts owed to the IRS. Starting at least as early as 1998, he repeatedly engaged with IRS collections officers tasked with trying to get him into compliance with the tax laws. Although IRS collections officers repeatedly advised Adams about his obligations to pay estimated taxes, he continually failed to pay those taxes on time or in sufficient amounts, the release said.

As part of this tax-fraud scheme, he engaged the services of a certified public accountant to prepare his personal tax returns beginning in approximately 1993, and then repeatedly failed to give the accountant complete, accurate information, according to the release.

In 2002, Adams sold an online floral business, which accounted for a significant portion of more than $6 million in taxable income he claimed on his 2002 tax return. Although he represented to the IRS in August 2003 he was enclosing payment of $1.25 million, no such payment was enclosed and he never made the payment, the release said.

In June 2011, he sold his partnership interest in another online floral business and received over $4.7 million wired into his personal bank account as part of the net proceeds owed to him as a result of the sale. Although he knew he owed substantial taxes on that amount, he engaged in a number of affirmative acts to conceal and attempt to conceal this income in order to evade the assessment of a tax. He failed to disclose to the revenue officer he had received the wired money in cash less than three weeks earlier, the release stated.

He was released on $500,000 bail pending his sentencing on Jan.11.