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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Knoxville Lawyer Is in the Soup

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (CN) - A Tennessee lawyer charged with ducking $1.4 million in taxes has been disbarred, accused of stealing client money for decades, the Knoxville News Sentinel reported.

A disbarment order against John O. Threadgill, of Knoxville, was filed by the state Board of Professional Responsibility this month after he pleaded guilty to one count of felony theft: stealing client money in 2009. He was sentenced to two years of probation, the newspaper reported.

In an unrelated federal indictment from March 2011, Threadgill was charged with evading $1.4 million in taxes since 1985.

According to the tax indictment, Threadgill used his law firm's bank and payroll accounts to "issue checks to third parties for personal expenditures, thus disguising the existence and source of funds available to pay his assessed personal income taxes and thwarting attempts to collect such taxes."

Prosecutors claims he put the titles to his homes in the name of nominee trusts to hide them from the IRS and opened bank accounts in the name of nominee trusts to duck taxes.

According to the indictment, he evaded taxes while spending $69,000 on his daughter's wedding, $245,000 for family educational expenses, $60,000 for country club expenses, $52,000 for personal travel, and $213,000 on real estate.

Threadgill is awaiting trial on the tax charge.

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