United States v. Beal

Appellant Beal was indicted for filing false and fraudulent income tax returns in each of four years -- 1959, 1960, 1961 and 1962 -- in violation of 26 U.S.C. § 7201 (1964). The government served notice that it intended to proceed by net worth proofs to show understatement of income by over $51,000 and understatement of tax by over $21,000 in the four disputed years. The case was tried to a jury before the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky and appellant was found guilty on all counts and was thereafter sentenced to probation and a $2,500 fine on each count. On appeal appellant's counsel listed ten separate claims of reversible error, but at oral argument largely abandoned all except numbers IV, VII and VIII.