Herman D. Holt v. United States

The appellant Holt was found guilty upon each of three counts of an indictment charging him with willfully and knowingly attempting to evade and defeat income tax owing by him to the United States by filing and causing to be filed false and fraudulent income tax returns in which he knowingly understated his income for each of the three years covered by the separate counts of the indictment, namely, 1952, 1953 and 1954. After the verdict of guilty, appellant was sentenced to three months imprisonment on each of the three counts, the sentences to run concurrently, and he was ordered to pay the costs of the prosecution. This appeal followed.

The evidence showed that about the year 1950, Holt, who operated a small automobile repair shop or garage at Ceres, California, began experimenting with a mast designed to hold a television antenna. As a result of that he developed what he called the “Jiffy Mast”, ultimately patented by him, and which he proceeded to manufacture and sell for use in connection with television aerials. The device proved to be successful and very popular and his sales became numerous and substantial and his profits multiplied rapidly. He carried on this…