By: Richard L. Smith
U.S. Attorney Philip Sellinger announced that a federal Judge in Camden County sentenced a Cherry Hill resident to just over two years in prison for evading more than $1 million in federal taxes.
According to Federal officials, John Ryan, 63, previously pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Joseph H. Rodriguez to an information charging him with one count of tax evasion. Judge Rodriguez imposed the sentence today in Camden federal court.
According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:
Ryan worked as an independent financial planner, helping broker sales between clients and various financial businesses.
One of these businesses engaged Ryan as a financial contractor to receive client funds on behalf of the business and to operate and control one of its financial accounts.
Ryan attempted to evade payment of his federal income taxes by converting the business and client funds in that account to his income.
By using the business account funds to satisfy expenses without the involvement of his personal bank accounts, Ryan was able to conceal the fact that he was withdrawing client funds and drawing checks on the business account in order to convert those funds to personal income.
Ryan then purposely failed to report as income the cash he skimmed from the account, on which he was required to pay federal income taxes.
In addition to the prison term, Judge Rodriguez sentenced Ryan to two years of supervised release and ordered him to pay $1,058,859 in restitution to the government.