United States v. Sideman & Bancroft, LLP

Sideman & Bancroft, LLP (Sideman) appeals from the district court’s order enforcing an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) administrative summons. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 , and we affirm.

I.

The IRS is currently undertaking a criminal investigation of Mary Nolan to determine whether she attempted to evade or defeat her tax liabilities or made a false declaration under penalty of perjury related to tax years 2005 to 2008. As part of that investigation, the IRS obtained a search warrant to locate Nolan’s tax documents for those years. On October 13, 2010, the IRS executed the search warrant, looking for the documents in Nolan’s residence, business, and car. The IRS failed to locate the documents it sought while executing the search warrant but did find references to Nolan’s income tax preparer, accountant Mary Fouts.

As the next step in the investigation, Special Agent Mark Pahnke contacted Fouts. Fouts indicated that Nolan had given her tax documents for the years 2007 and 2008. Fouts explained that she no longer had the documents as she had delivered them to Nolan’s civil tax attorney, Richard Guadagni. Special Agent Pahnke subsequently contacted…