ENGLISH LAWYER SENTENCED IN
CONNECTION WITH TAX FRAUD SCHEME
Orchestrated by former National Revenue Corporation Executive
October 25, 2004
United States Attorney's Office
Southern District of Ohio
303 Marconi Boulevard - Suite 200
Columbus, OH 43215
Tel: 614.469.5715
Fax: 614.469.2200
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
COLUMBUS - Jeremy Alfred Franks, 52, formerly a Solicitor from London, England,
was sentenced today to five years of probation and ten months of home
confinement for his role in a conspiracy by Richard Schultz to hide millions of
dollars from the IRS and his creditors.
Gregory G. Lockhart, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio,
and Cromwell A. Handy, Special Agent in Charge, Internal Revenue Service
Criminal Investigation, announced the sentence handed down by United States
District Judge Algenon L. Marbley.
Franks had pleaded guilty in September 2002 to conspiring with Schultz and
others to defraud the United States by impeding and impairing the Internal
Revenue Service through concealing Schultz's money in offshore bank accounts.
At his plea hearing in 2002, Franks admitting setting up offshore corporations
to hide Schultz's money and transferring Schultz's funds back to the United
States disguised as loans to corporations controlled by other Schultz
co-conspirators. Franks also admitted helping Schultz in 1995 disguise his
personal legal expenses as business expenses so that those personal expenses
would be paid by National Revenue Corporation. At the time, Schultz was the
President and Chief Executive Office of National Revenue Corporation, a
Columbus-based collections agency.
Franks is the tenth Schultz co-conspirator and fourth lawyer sentenced in the
case. A Cleveland lawyer, Martin W. Elson, is the last Schultz co-conspirator
waiting to be sentenced. No date has been set for his sentencing.
Lockhart commended the agents of the IRS Criminal Investigation Division and the
Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents who investigated the case,
and Justice Department Trial Attorney Mark Yost, who is prosecuting the case.
For additional comment contact Fred Alverson, Public Affairs Officer at
614.469.5715. The Internet address for the homepage for the United States
Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Ohio is www.usdoj.gov/usao/ohs.