Maryland State Bar Association Inc. v. Agnew

On October 10, 1973, in the United States District Court for the District of Maryland, Spiro T. Agnew, a member of the Maryland Bar and the respondent in this disciplinary proceeding, having just moments before resigned as Vice President of the United States, entered a plea of nolo contendere to a criminal information which charged him with violating the United States Internal Revenue Code of 1954, ? 7201. More specifically, it was alleged that Mr. Agnew did "willfully and knowingly attempt to evade and defeat a large part of the income tax due and owing by him and his wife to the United States of America for the calendar year 1967, by filing and causing to be filed . . . a false and fraudulent joint income tax return . . . ." Following the district courts acceptance of his plea to this felony charge, and after the allocution by Mr. Agnew to which we will later refer, Judge Walter E. Hoffman directed the entry of a final judgment suspending the imposition of sentence for a period of three years conditioned upon the respondents good behavior and his payment of a $10,000 fine.