As an employee of a law firm, Francis J. Bass should have known better than to try and cheat the government. The 61-year-old Philadelphia-area man pleaded guilty this week to four counts of subscribing a false federal income tax return. He failed to report nearly half a million dollars in income to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
Bass served as the intake coordinator for Lundy Law, a personal injury law firm in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. Typically, an intake coordinator collects basic contact information for a potential client as well as assessing the nature of the dispute or potential claim. In Bass’ case, he also referred personal injury clients to medical providers and hired private investigators. He was paid for the referrals directly from medical providers and investigators he selected. For his trouble, he was paid approximately $500 per client.
Bass didn’t report all of that income to the IRS. Not only did he not report all of the income, but he also went to great lengths to avoid reporting. Bass created a fictitious “investigation” business that he listed on a Schedule C. He reported a small piece of the referral payments on the Schedule C and conveniently didn’t include the rest.
Bass worked at Lundy Law for more than 20 years. During the tax years involved in the investigation, 2009 through 2013, prosecutors alleged that Bass received approximately $800,000 in referral fees – yes, that’s a lot of referral fees. At $500 a pop, it’s about 1,600 referrals.
For tax years 2009 through 2012, Bass failed to report $483,901 in income and owed additional taxes of $126,104. As part of his plea agreement, Bass also acknowledged that he owed an additional $77,360 in taxes for $341,264 in income for the tax 2013 year. Altogether, he owes more than $200,000 in unpaid taxes.
You can view the original charges here.
Bass is scheduled to be sentenced on September 13. He faces up to 12 years in prison, one year of supervised release, a possible fine, and a $400 special assessment. If he’s sentenced and serves the maximum prison term, he will be 74 years old when he is released. He has asked to serve no prison time.
