William R. Forman v. United States

Appellant Forman was found guilty and sentenced under the fifteenth count of a fifteen count indictment returned against him and one Seijas. The first fourteen counts of the indictment stated charges against Seijas only, and they are not involved in this appeal. In the fifteenth count it was charged that Seijas and Forman entered into a conspiracy to defraud the United States and to violate certain sections of the Internal Revenue Code and the Criminal Code, among them section 145(b) of the Internal Revenue Code (1939), relating to attempts to evade or defeat income tax. As the case is presented here the key portions of this count were stated in paragraphs “C” and “D”, as follows:

The count listed 33 overt acts alleged to have been committed in furtherance of the conspiracy.

Seijas in a separate trial was found guilty, under counts 9 through 13, of substantive offenses pertaining to the evasion or attempt to evade his tax and that of his wife for the years 1946 through 1948. He pleaded guilty to the charge against him in count 15. Forman was tried alone upon that count and Seijas, who was then serving his sentence under the other counts, was produced as a witness for the…