A former revenue officer for the IRS, Henti Lucian Baird of Greensboro, NC, pleaded guilty in October, 2016 to one count of tax evasion and one count of corruptly endeavoring to impede the due administration of the internal revenue laws.
Baird worked for the IRS for 12 years prior to starting his own company, HL Baird Tax Consultants. It operated from 1984 to 2014, and Baird advertised himself as a specialist in handing IRS problems. During that time, he created over 10 nominee bank accounts in the names of his children to evade paying his own federal income taxes. Baird would transfer hundreds of thousands of dollars into these nominee accounts, filing a false Chapter 13 bankruptcy petition, submitting a false Form 433-A, and then transferring the funds out of the nominee accounts to avoid impending IRS levies. Baird used the funds to pay the mortgage on his 4,300 sq. ft. home, his timeshare in Florida and payments on his BMW.
In addition, Baird used his stepson’s identification without his knowledge to obtain Preparer Tax Identification Number (PTIN), which used to prepare over 900 tax returns for his clients as well as his own.
Baird will be sentenced in January, 2017 and faces a total of 8 years in prison and has agreed to pay full restitution to the IRS, which currently totals over $477,000 and will continue to accrue interest and penalties until paid in full.
