Nev. dentist pleads guilty to $437K tax evasion scheme

A Nevada dentist has pleaded guilty to a $437,456 tax evasion scheme.

Leslie M. Kotler, DMD, who practices in Henderson, NV, hid his salary in a phony trust for several years and filed a bankruptcy petition that provided false information about his assets, according to a Las Vegas Review-Journal story.

Dr. Kotler, 54, is to be sentenced in November. He pleaded guilty on June 26 to one felony count of tax evasion involving the $437,456 he owed to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) from 2003 through 2007. He has agreed to cooperate in an illegal tax shelter investigation, according to the story. He is currently free on his own recognizance.

Dr. Kotler's name emerged in a civil complaint the U.S. Justice Department in 2012 filed against three defendants involved in a nationwide tax scheme built around a series of sham trusts. He filed a Chapter 13 reorganization petition in bankruptcy court that same year that understated his assets by almost $400,000 to further avoid paying his tax bill, according to the plea agreementd.

Dr. Kotler has agreed to pay the IRS more than $600,000 in restitution, which includes taxes owed through 2011, and more than $100,000 in civil penalties.