A 78-year-old Branford woman, an admitted gifting table participant who for three years paid no taxes on the $100,000 she earned at the tables, was sentenced yesterday to one year of probation, the first six months of which she must serve in home confinement. She is the latest woman to be convicted for failing to pay taxes on the bounty she received from what was actually an illegal pyramid scheme.
U.S. District Judge Alvin W. Thompson, who sits in Hartford, also ordered Eileen Brennan to perform 50 hours of community services and pay back taxes, interest and penalties.
Unlike the major players in the gifting table fraud, Brennan and another Branford woman, Nancy Dillon, 70, were not charged with fraud. Both pleaded guilty to misdemeanors. At her sentencing in February Dillon received probation as well. Click here to read the story.
Brennan appeared before Judge Thompson last August to plead guilty to one count of willful failure to file a return, supply information or pay tax. She was represented by Kenneth Rosenthal of Brenner, Saltzman & Wallman in New Haven. According to the U.S. Attorney’s office, which prosecuted the Brennan case, in 2008, 2009 and 2010, she received $100,000 while participating in the gifting tables pyramid scheme. Even though she had been advised by an attorney that the money was taxable income and not a gift, she failed to pay federal income taxes, the prosecutors said.
Brennan’s sentence was similar to Dillon’s except that Judge Thompson ordered Dillion to perform 100 hours of community service, pay a $2,000 fine and back taxes, penalties and interest. She received $40,000 while a member of the tables.
The gifting tables’ scheme played out in homes across the shoreline for many years. The success of those joining the tables depended on new participants coming in and making the initial $5,000 “gift.” Once they joined, and brought in new people, they moved up the table hierarchy until they reached the top row, the “dessert,” and a $40,000 bonanza.
This case, like prior ones, was investigated by the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation Division and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Douglas P. Morabito and Peter S. Jongbloed. The federal investigation continues.
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