The wife and office manager of a Louisa doctor received 30 days in jail for a federal tax evasion conviction, well below the 20 months the U.S. Justice Department requested.
Tammie Klein, 62, of Louisa, pleaded guilty in March to a single count of attempted tax evasion, after it was determined she filed false forms between 2015 and 2017, underreporting $400,870 to the IRS.
According to federal prosecutors, she did so as the office manager and bookkeeper at Family Practice of Louisa and Recovery Louisa, where her husband Dr. Jeremy Klein practiced.
In addition to the 30-day stint at FPC Alderson in West Virginia, Klein is required to pay back $400,970 in restitution.
Sentencing memorandums filed in the case tell drastically different stories.
According to her defense attorney, Marc Murphy of Louisville, Klein lacked the formal education to accurately report to the IRS. In addition to that, Klein was the sole caretaker of her dying mother during the period in which the fraud occurred and had to deal with a son who developed severe health problems in college.
Along with failing to pay the taxes, these additional stressors caused Klein to shut down and stick her head in the sand, the attorney stated. Due to all these factors, Murphy argued that Klein ought to be given a term of probation.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrea L. Mattingly Williams contended that Klein had already gotten in trouble once with the IRS in the 2000s, at which point she had to get on a payment plan to make the debt right.
The prosecutor stated that Klein did not change her ways, despite getting in hot water back then. Klein also spent money on frivolous items, such as buying a property on a land contract and a trip to Disney World, the memorandum stated.
The other hospital thief got 30 months. This thief gets 30 days. Hummmm?