Attorney from Morris Plains Sentenced to Jail

A Morris Plains resident was sentenced Monday to 18 months in prison for filing a false federal income tax return, according to an announcement from U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman.

David Lewis, 51, a CPA and attorney with a law practice in Morristown,  before U.S. District Judge Dickinson R. Debevoise, the same judge who imposed the sentence in Newark federal court.

According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:

Lewis, who has an advanced degree in tax law, held himself out on his firm’s website as an expert in income tax planning and income tax returns. Lewis admitted that in April 2004, he filed a federal income tax return for 2003 that was false in that it failed to report more than $300,000 in income that Lewis received from his law practice. 

Debevoise also sentenced Lewis to three years of supervised release. He was ordered to cooperate with IRS agents.

Fishman credited special agents of IRS in Criminal Investigation, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Victor W. Lessoff, with the investigation. The government was represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Kelly of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Economic Crimes Unit in Newark. Defense counsel is Alain Leibman Esq., of Lawrenceville, N.J.