Friday, June 3, 2022

A Utah man was sentenced today to five years in prison for evading more than $1.8 million in federal income tax and obstructing the IRS’s efforts to collect the money he owed.

According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Derald Wilford Geddes, of Ogden, was a dentist who owned and operated Mount Ogden Dental PC. From approximately 1998 through 2014, Geddes took repeated steps to evade the federal income taxes he owed and obstruct the IRS’s efforts to collect his tax debt. Among other efforts, Geddes filed false liens against his own properties, submitted to the IRS bogus “bonds to discharge debt” that he claimed were from the account of the former Treasury Secretary and filed false corporate income tax returns. In March 2022, Geddes was convicted at trial by a federal jury of tax evasion, filing false tax returns and impeding the IRS.

In addition to the term of imprisonment, U.S. District Judge Tena Campbell ordered Geddes to serve 36 months of supervised release and to pay approximately $1.8 million in restitution to the United States.

Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stuart M. Goldberg of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and U.S. Attorney Trina A. Higgins for the District of Utah made the announcement.

IRS-Criminal Investigation investigated the case.

Trial Attorneys Ahmed Almudallal and Christopher Lin of the Justice Department’s Tax Division prosecuted the case.