Attorneys Try to Avoid Prison in $22 Million Tax Shelter Case

Two Missouri tax attorneys made their case to a federal trial court judge for why they should avoid prison for their role in operating a tax shelter that the federal government said defrauded the IRS of more than $22 million.

The IRS asked the US District Court for the Western District of North Carolina to make Michael Kohn and Catherine Chollet, who is Kohn’s daughter, pay more than $22 million in restitution to the agency for their tax scheme. The pair, convicted of fraud and aiding the filing of false returns in April, promoted a “Gain Elimination Plan” to inflate ...