Hopkins man sentenced to prison for tax evasion

 

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Date: February 23, 2022

Contact: newsroom@ci.irs.gov

MINNEAPOLIS — A Hopkins man has been sentenced to 27 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release and $336,040.45 in restitution for tax evasion after failing to file income tax returns since 1997. Acting U.S. Attorney Charles J. Kovats made the announcement after U.S. District Judge Susan Richard Nelson sentenced the defendant.

As proven at trial, between 1987 and 2017, Daniel Berglund was the owner and sole employee of Faith Software (FAITH) where he worked as a computer language instructor. Despite earning a substantial income annually through FAITH, Berglund did not file any individual income tax returns since 1997, and never once filed a corporate tax return of any kind on behalf of FAITH. Proving that he was well aware of his tax obligations, Berglund took numerous steps to hide his income from the IRS, including giving his FAITH clients a fabricated Tax Identification Number to prevent their payments from being reported to the IRS as income attributable to him, depositing clients' payments into accounts where the funds would not be traceable to him, and converting his income into silver that he stashed in concealed locations in his home. Berglund's evasion resulted in a total tax debt of approximately $336,040.45.

On October 8, 2021, Berglund was convicted by a federal jury on four counts of tax evasion.

This case was the result of an investigation conducted by the IRS Criminal Investigation Division with the assistance of IRS Field Collections.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Matthew S. Ebert and Kimberly A. Svendsen.