Metro chiropractor gets jail for tax fraud

Published: 2009-09-12 16:36:52
Author: Atlanta Business Chronicle | August 18, 2009

Cumming, Ga., Chiropractor Michael J. Falite was sentenced Tuesday to two years in federal prison on charges of filing a false tax return.

Falite also was ordered to pay $216,038 in restitution. Falite pleaded guilty and was convicted on June 9.

“This successful chiropractor, operating a lucrative practice, decided he no longer wanted to pay his lawful income taxes,” U.S. Attorney David E. Nahmias said. “He chose instead to file a fraudulent tax return, falsely stating that 90-percent of his income went to a non-existent ‘partner’ company. He used his ill-gotten gains to pay the balance on his mortgage, purchase automobiles, and open investment accounts.”

Falite, 42, owns and operates a chiropractic practice in Alpharetta, Ga., known as “Falite Family Chiropractic,” which was incorporated as an LLC in 2000. In 2002, acting against the advice of his accountant, he filed a federal tax return for the chiropractic practice using a fraudulent trust scheme. The 2002 tax return attributed 90 percent of the income from the chiropractic clinic to a non-existent company known as “Abundance Investments.”

No tax return was filed by or on behalf of Abundance Investments, and no tax was paid on the income attributed to that company on the Falite Family Chiropractic tax return.

Bank account records showed Falite wrote checks from the chiropractic practice to Abundance Investments and other non-existent companies, which he then endorsed and deposited into bank accounts in names other than his own or Falite Family Chiropractic.

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