Brookline Doctor Pleads Guilty to Tax Evasion

The information in this story comes from a press release from the office of U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz: 

Mark S. Hughes, of Brookline, was convicted today, Monday, in federal court on tax charges.

Hughes, 50, pled guilty before U.S. District Judge William G. Young to evading taxes and obstructing an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) tax audit. Had the case proceeded to trial, the government would have tried to show that between 2003 and 2009, Hughes did not pay taxes on what the feds believe to be millions of dollars of income, causing a tax loss to the IRS of more than $800,000.

The government claims that Hughes evaded taxes by diverting money that he was earning as an ophthalmologist to a consulting firm he owned called Omega, and then through Omega he made more than $2 million in contributions to a defined pension benefit plan. The government claims that Hughes knew, or should have known, that those contributions were taxable income.

The government case added that in 2008, during an IRS audit of Omega’s defined pension benefit plan, Hughes obstructed that audit by communicating false information to the IRS about the nature of Omega’s business.

Judge Young scheduled sentencing for October 13. Hughes faces up to five years in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release, and a $250,000 fine on the tax evasion charge, and up to three years in prison, to be followed by one year of supervised release, and a $250,000 fine on the obstruction charge.

[Editor's Note 6:51 p.m.: Mark Hughes was  at the end of June.]