David E. Robinson, the second Brunswick man convicted in federal court of conspiring to defraud the Internal Revenue Service, was sentenced on Monday to serve four months in prison.
Robinson, 79, was sentenced by Judge D. Brock Hornby in U.S. District Court in Portland after his co-conspirator, 71-year-old F. William Messier, was sentenced on Aug. 27 to serve a year and a day in prison.
Robinson and Messier were convicted after a five-day jury trial on April 3. In addition to the conspiracy charge, Messier was also convicted of a charge of corruptly trying to impede the agency’s attempts to collect taxes he owed.
Hornby also sentenced Robinson to serve one year of supervised release after completing his prison term, including four months of home confinement.
Doing business as Oak Hill Communications, Messier failed to pay taxes on hundreds of thousands of dollars earned from leases on telecommunications towers on his Brunswick property, according to testimony during the trial.
From 1999 to 2014, Messier provided false tax documents to customers and obstructed IRS collection activities, according to court records.
The town of Brunswick used a tower there for its emergency communications system.
In 2012, the IRS assessed $172,000 in taxes and interest for the years 2000 to 2004 against Messier.
According to testimony from witnesses, after the IRS sent notices of levy to Messier’s customers, Messier and Robinson tried to obstruct and impede the IRS by presenting the IRS with a fake money order for the amount owed.
Messier and Robinson also urged customers not to honor the levies or to pay the IRS, and to pay Messier in cash to conceal their payments from the IRS.
The two also sent false documents to the IRS and sent threatening and misleading correspondence to customers urging them not to cooperate with the IRS, according to testimony.
Messier and Robinson co-authored a book about the IRS, “Maine Lawsuit Against the IRS: For Unfair Trade Practices.”
As part of Messier’s sentence, he was ordered by the judge to pay a fine of $15,000, file tax returns going back to 2005 and pay back income tax to that year, estimated by the government to be $168,376, not including interest and penalties.
Scott Dolan can be contacted at 791-6304 or at:
Twitter: @scottddolan
Send questions/comments to the editors.
