Income tax evasion is going to cost Victor Posner a lot of money. Posner has plenty to spend.
So U.S. District Judge Eugene Spellman should have made certain that he got the wealthy industrialist’s attention by sending him to jail. Not for the 40 years that Posner could have gotten, but long enough to avoid adding to the perception that rich felons do not do time behind bars.
Instead, Spellman ordered Posner to spend at least $3 million on a program to help South Florida’s homeless, do 5,000 hours of community service, and pay more than $4 million in back taxes, penalties and interest, along with a $75,000 fine.
In explaining the sentence, Spellman said the homeless project was much more meaningful than a prison term and besides, at the age of 69, Posner is too old to be imprisoned.
He is correct on the first point, wrong on the second.
The punishment is a creative approach to a problem that is particularly troublesome in Broward, Dade and Palm Beach Counties. There is no reason, however, why the sentence couldn’t have included a jail term to be served at some point after the homeless project is organized and underway.
Posner pleaded no contest to charges that he evaded $1.2 million in income taxes by filing false returns from 1975-79 and inflating the value of land donated to Miami Christian College. That is a serious offense.
In urging Spellman to send Posner to jail, prosecutor Neil Cartusciello said honest citizens “need some reassurance, some measure of protection from a kind of economic competition from those who don’t abide by the law.”
That is a familiar and all too often ignored argument.
Posner’s personal fortune has been estimated at $240 million. If money is all that his crime is going to cost him, then it is imperative that he fulfill all phases of his sentence.
It will be difficult to make certain that he invests the $3 million called for by Spellman. Keeping track of his community service time, which works out to 20 hours a week for five years, won’t be easy, either.
The judge went to great pains to work out what he considers suitable punishment. He should go to even greater pains to see that the sentence is carried out.
