Convicted Scientist Petitions Supreme Court to Deduct Legal Fees

William French Anderson, the once-renowned “father of gene therapy” later convicted of sexually abusing his colleague’s young daughter, asked the US Supreme Court to allow him to deduct his legal fees as business expenses.

The IRS didn’t allow William and his wife, Kathryn, to deduct about $360,000 in legal expenses they incurred after he was convicted of lewd acts and continuous sexual abuse of a minor, then sentenced in 2006 to 14 years in prison. The couple challenged the resulting tax deficiencies, but the US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit found their arguments favoring a deduction to be ...