Hotel owner sentenced to five years for tax evasion
Tuesday, October 18, 2005 8:27 AM PDT
By Evan Caldwell
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E-mail this articleA Vancouver man who owns Longview rental properties and who tried to say he was not subject to U.S. laws has received a five-year federal prison sentence for tax evasion.
Thomas D. Weathers, 55, of Vancouver was sentenced Friday in Tacoma by U.S. District Court Judge Franklin D. Burgess.
Weathers and his wife, Kathy, owe more than $1.6 million in federal back taxes, interest and the cost of prosecution, spokeswoman Emily Langlie said in a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Washington.
Weathers and his wife, Kathy J. Weathers, were convicted in June of evading payment of their 1996 federal income tax and for failing to file tax returns from 1998 to 2002. Kathy Weathers, 53, was sentenced Sept. 29 and received two years' probation.
The couple were making more than $1 million per year from their hotel and rental business, but they claimed they earned no income, according to the attorney's office. Meanwhile, they spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on new cars, an airplane, foreign trips, home remodeling, private school tuition and investments, Langlie said.
They also attempted to hide assets and income from the Internal Revenue Service by setting up shell corporations and placing all of their bank accounts and other assets, such as vehicles, in the names of such corporations, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office.
The couple owns the Hudson Hotel and Oregon Way Motor Court in Longview, duplexes and single-family rental homes in Longview and Kelso, the Joyce Hotel and Kent Hotel in Portland, and rental properties in Vancouver, Ridgefield and Sunriver, Ore.
During a federal investigation, the Weatherses filed documents declaring their independence from the United States, rejecting any obligation to follow federal laws.
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