LOS ANGELES - A tax lawyer who represented retired professional football player Antrel Rolle was sentenced to 36 months in federal prison today for fraudulently obtaining tax refunds for Rolle, stealing the refunds and then covering up his scheme by filing false documents with the Internal Revenue Service.
Hiram M. Martin, 71, of Fair Oaks, California, pleaded guilty on January 7 to one felony count of attempting to obstruct or impede the administration of internal revenue laws. The three-year prison sentence handed down by United States District Judge Otis D. Wright II is the maximum amount of prison time possible under the law for the offense. Judge Wright also ordered Martin to pay $1,223,480 in restitution.
Martin admitted in his plea agreement that he submitted false tax returns for Rolle, who hired Martin when he was a 23-year-old rookie in the National Football League. The tax returns claimed millions of dollars in bogus charitable donations and business expenses, and Martin never informed Rolle about the phony deductions. The IRS issued tax refunds of $322,008 for the 2005 tax year and $901,472 for the 2006 year as a result of Martin’s deductions. Martin directed the IRS to deposit the refunds into Martin’s bank account or to mail the refunds to his mailing address. Martin then used the fraudulently obtained money for his own personal benefit, including an investment account under his control.
When the IRS began auditing Rolle’s tax returns for these years, Martin in August 2009 faxed two letters to the IRS that attempted to support the fraudulent donations. Martin then - without Rolle’s authorization - filed petitions in Tax Court challenging the IRS after it rejected the deductions. Martin has admitted that he forged Rolle’s signature on the Tax Court petitions. In May 2011, Martin - without Rolle’s knowledge or authorization - agreed to a judgment that imposed a tax liability of nearly $2 million on Rolle. Martin also admitted that he provided Rolle with a fabricated set of tax returns for 2005 and 2006 that did not claim any refunds - refunds that Martin never submitted to the IRS.
Martin also took steps to prevent the IRS from directly contacting Rolle by providing the IRS with his own personal and business addresses and claiming they were Rolle’s addresses. When a news article detailing Rolle’s tax liabilities were published in January 2010, Martin attempted to prevent Rolle from contacting the IRS by telling him that the article was not true.
This matter was investigated by IRS Criminal Investigation.
This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Alexander Wyman and Ranee Katzenstein of the Major Frauds Section.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
