Date: October 8, 2021 Contact: newsroom@ci.irs.gov St. Paul, MN — A federal jury convicted a Hopkins man for tax evasion after failing to file income tax returns since 1997, announced Acting U.S. Attorney W. Anders Folk. Following a five-day trial before Judge Susan Richard Nelson, Daniel Berglund was convicted on all four counts of tax evasion. According to the evidence presented at trial, between approximately 1987 and 2017, Berglund was the owner and sole employee of Faith Software (FAITH) where he worked as a computer language instructor. Despite earning a substantial income annually through FAITH, Berglund did not file any individual income tax returns since 1997, and never once filed a corporate tax return of any kind on behalf of FAITH. Proving that he was well aware of his tax obligations, Berglund took numerous steps to hide his income from the IRS, including giving his FAITH clients a fabricated Tax Identification Number to prevent their payments from being reported to the IRS as income attributable to him, depositing clients' payments into accounts where the funds would not be traceable to him, and converting his income into silver that he stashed in concealed locations in his home. Berglund's evasion resulted in a total tax debt of approximately $146,806. Berglund faces a maximum sentence of up to five years in prison and a fine up to $250,000 per count. A sentencing date has yet to be scheduled. This case was the result of an investigation conducted by the IRS Criminal Investigation Division with the assistance of IRS Field Collections. This case was tried by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Matthew S. Ebert and Kimberly A. Svendsen.
