Phoenixville Man Sentenced to Four Years in Prison for Tax Evasion Scheme

PHILADELPHIA—David F. Kane, 39, of Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, a former member of the Limerick Township Board of Supervisors, was sentenced today to four years in prison for a tax evasion scheme that included mail fraud. Kane pleaded guilty December 12, 2011 to filing a false income tax return for 2004, failure to file income tax returns for 2005 through 2007, evasion of a $600,000 tax levied upon him in 2006 by the IRS, and mail fraud.

The last time Kane filed tax returns and paid legitimate federal income taxes was in the late 1990s. In late 2005, when Kane ran for office in Limerick Township, he filed a false 2004 income tax return. The return failed to report nearly $400,000 in income that Kane received as head of a Skippack real estate company, Kane Core Incorporated (KCI). Once he was elected a Limerick Township supervisor, Kane returned to failing to file income tax returns or pay taxes on nearly $800,000 of income he reaped from his company during 2005 through 2007.

When the IRS placed a $600,000 lien upon him in 2006, Kane evaded paying his taxes and undertook extraordinary steps to hide his income. Kane diverted KCI real estate sales proceeds to a shell corporation he controlled and to an escrow company which paid his personal expenses. He also diverted KCI proceeds directly from real estate sales to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional personal expenses, including $43,000 in divorce payments to his ex-wife and $19,000 to purchase a boat. Throughout his scheme, Kane used KCI corporate accounts directly to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in other personal expenses, including Eagles tickets, strip club expenses, golf trips, vacations, a housekeeper, a car, and personal credit cards. After the IRS placed its lien against him, Kane and his brother John stole some of the proceeds of the sale of Kane’s home, money which should have been turned over to the IRS.

Also charged as a result of the scheme were Kane’s brother John, of Berlin, New Jersey, who was sentenced in December to one year in prison; Kane’s father, Gregory M. Kane, who was sentenced to 15 months; his partner, Mark G. Marino, a former member of the Skippack Township Board of Supervisors, who was sentenced to 13 months; and Jamie E.E. Baugher, who was sentenced to seven months.

U.S. District Court Judge Eduardo C. Robreno also ordered Kane to pay restitution to the IRS in the amount of $1,209,879 and complete three years’ supervised release.

The case was investigated by the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Paul L. Gray.