Heloise Westbrook, MD, of Owensboro, Kentucky, formerly of Aberdeen, South Dakota, was sentenced on March 6, 2017, on three misdemeanor charges of Fraudulent Returns, Statements, or Other Documents in U.S. District Court.
She was sentenced to five years of probation on each count to run concurrently, restitution to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in the amount of $184,871.21, an $8800.00 fine, and a $75 special assessment. In addition, Westbrook will be required to serve 100 days in the Daviess County Detention Center in Kentucky (2 days and 2 nights each consecutive weekend for a period of 50 weeks).
Westbrook was originally charged with one count of Impeding the Administration of the Internal Revenue Laws.
Westbrook is a medical doctor who operated a medical practice in Aberdeen, including between 2004 and 2010. Her medical practice was organized as a wholly-owned professional corporation, and she filed corporate income tax returns, in addition to personal income tax returns.
In a a civil audit, the IRS agent assigned identified numerous entries that Westbrook had identified as business expenses for purposes of her corporate tax returns and deducted them as business expenses. Her claimed business expenses were not, in fact, business related, but rather personal expenses incurred to pay for her own wedding celebration.
She pled guilty to three misdemeanor charges of Fraudulent Returns, Statements, or Other Documents on December 2, 2016.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin Koliner prosecuted the case. The investigation was conducted by the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigations Division.