KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) – An attorney from Independence has been sentenced to 21 months in prison for a tax evasion scheme that cost the federal government nearly $795,000.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Missouri, 70-year-old John C. Carnes was sentenced on Monday, July 14, after pleading guilty in November 2024 to evading income tax payments. He was also ordered to pay the full $795,000 in restitution.
Investigators revealed that between 2012 and 2018, Carnes avoided paying taxes by funneling his income into attorney trust accounts and then using the funds for personal and business expenses.
Attorney trust accounts are intended to hold money for clients or third parties, not for a lawyer’s personal use. Carnes misused two such accounts—one of which he drained of nearly $445,000 between 2016 and 2018, and the other of more than $144,000 between 2013 and 2015.
Officials said Carnes used the withdrawn cash for gambling and personal spending. He also deposited earnings from the sale of the former Rockwood Golf Course, the Missouri City Power Plant project, and other ventures into these accounts.
The IRS reported that Carnes’ actions caused a tax loss of nearly $619,000 between 2012 and 2018. He had already cost the agency over $175,000 in unpaid taxes between 1990 and 2005, bringing the total loss to nearly $795,000.
IRS agents investigated Carnes’ tax liabilities from 2009 through 2020. No additional details have been released.
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