Posted on: Tuesday, October 21, 2003

Pair looking at prison time for tax evasion

Advertiser Staff

Two O'ahu men are each facing federal prison terms of up to five years and a fine of up to $250,000 after pleading guilty to charges that they conspired to cheat the state and federal governments out of nearly $157,000 in taxes between 1985 and 1997.

Victor H. Zuercher Jr., a Nu'uanu dentist, pleaded guilty yesterday to a single count of federal income tax evasion before senior U.S. District Judge Edward Rafeedie. Peter Paul Virdone of Kailua, Zuercher's co-defendant and a licensed certified public accountant and tax preparer in Hawai'i, pleaded guilty to a federal income tax evasion charge on Oct. 10.

Zuercher, 62, and Virdone, 61, were accused of participating in a scheme to hide income and assets from the Internal Revenue Service and the state of Hawai'i by filing false federal and state income tax returns, creating corporations to hide assets and filing false and fraudulent statements with an IRS collection officer to try to hide the scheme.

The two admitted to evading taxes for the calendar years 1985, 1986, 1990 and 1993-97.

They are scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 26.

The case was prosecuted by Edward "Ted" Groves and Kevin Downing of the U.S. Department of Justice, Tax Division, Western Criminal Enforcement Section.