Advising Clients on "How To Do Time" (6/26/19)

I picked up this offering that Tax Crimes fans might be interested in.  Alan Ellis and J. Michael Henderson, How to Do Time, Parts 1-4.  Many of criminal defense lawyers really do not get into the details of the prison experience.  These authors offer useful insights that will be helpful in preparing clients for the experience.  This was published in Law 360 but is available on Allan Ellis' sight, here.

The introduction from an email from Allan Ellis:

How To Do Time, Parts 1-4

Most lawyers understandably are unable to advise a first-time federal inmate as to what it will be like in prison. Rarely do they ever get beyond an attorney visiting room. In this four-part series of articles, Alan Ellis and J. Michael Henderson, the co-authors of the Federal Prison Guidebook, with the help of Phillip S. Wise, retired Bureau of Prisons Assistant Director of Health Services, offer answers to many questions that attorneys, their clients, and their clients' family and friends may have. 

Interview of R. J. Ruble, A Tax Lawyer Incarcerated for Tax Shelter Crimes (2/13/13)

The most recent edition, Winter 2013, of the ABA Tax Section NewsQuarterly has an interview of R.J. Ruble by Jasper L. Cummings, Jr.  The interview is here.

Mr. Ruble was the law firm partner convicted in the major KPMG individual defendant tax shelter prosecution, the first of three successive prosecutions of tax shelter promoters associated with major accounting firms and law firms.  Readers of this blog  will remember that that case, in addition to producing convictions of three prominent tax professionals (including Mr. Ruble), had earlier seen the dismissal of thirteen tax professionals associated with KPMG because the prosecutors had pressured KPMG to quit paying their legal fees.  See United States v. Stein, 541 F.3d 130 (2d Cir. 2008), here.  As to Mr. Ruble, I blogged the Second Circuit's affirmance of his conviction in the following blog:  Larson, Pfaff, Ruble Convictions In KPMG Tax Shelters Case Affirmed (Federal Tax Crime Blog 8/27/10), here.  Mr. Ruble remains incarcerated.

I thought that, pending the availability of the full interview, I would offer the final Q&A (hopefully fair use):

Q  Is there anything else you would like your fellow tax attorneys to know about being a lawyer in prison? 

A  Once you’re in prison, it doesn’t matter what you did on the outside, and the skills you had may not be particularly useful in a prison environment. It’s a very humbling experience. I think that, as with all things in life, you need to be  reflective about how you live your life from day to day, to decide what you can do that gives you satisfaction, and to move forward as best you can. For those who have friends or acquaintances inside, realize that for those of us here any positive connection with those on the outside makes life here much more tolerable, and that what may seem as a small act of kindness becomes magnified many times over to the recipient.

Mr. Cummings, the interviewer, has recently written an article that questions the convictions of tax shelter promoters such as Mr. Ruble for the types of shelters involved in these major prosecutions.  Jasper L. Cummings, Jr., DOJ Criminal Tax Overreach, 138 Tax Notes 745 (Feb. 11, 2013).  I have received permission from Tax Analysts to provide that article on February 25 and plan to have a blog on the article on that date.

Doing Your Time (1/17/12)

This TIGTA Report suggests that, if you are sentenced to prison,  perhaps there is still some opportunities for gainful employment.   TIGTA, Further Efforts Are Needed to Ensure the Internal Revenue Service Prisoner File Is Accurate and Complete (December 18, 2012 Ref#:  2013-40-011), here.

Incarceration - Making the Best of It

The Wall Street Journal Law Blog here has an interesting discussion with a prison consultant who advised Bernie Madoff on his life in prison. Criminal tax lawyers -- including tax crimes defense lawyers -- have to cover this topic with clients from time to time (hopefully not too often). In my Federal Tax Crimes book, I include a snippet from a prior WSJ Law blog here about Bill Lerach reporting to prison. That blog too is worth a read, but I note particularly the following from the article:

Alan Ellis, a Bay Area lawyer who specializes in “post-conviction work” advises clients to treat prison time as a sabbatical. “You can take those two years and add five years to your life physically, mentally, and spiritually,” he says.

I will have to say that my limited anecdotal experience is that clients usually do not buy into this concept on the front end, but that some clients quickly determine to make the best use of their time. Of course, Madoff has more than two years to work with, but many tax crimes defendants have about that amount of time.