Date: July 17, 2023 Contact: newsroom@ci.irs.gov Vanessa Roberts Avery, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, and Joleen D. Simpson, Special Agent in Charge of Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (CI) in New England, announced that Boulos Hanna, also known as "Paul Hanna," of East Lyme, waved his right to be indicted and pleaded guilty today before U.S. District Judge Omar A. Williams in Hartford to tax evasion. According to court documents and statements made in court, Hanna is the sole owner of Paul Hanna DMD PC, a dental practice in New London. Hanna takes fees from dental patients in the form personal checks, cash, and credit card payments. Hanna owns the building where his dental practice is located and the practice pays rent to Hanna individually. For each of the 2000 through 2009 tax years, Hanna filed a Form 1040, U.S. Individual Income Tax Return for himself and his wife, and paid the tax due and owing for those years, typically by having withholdings during the year sufficient to cover his tax liability. For the 2010 through 2012 tax years, Hanna filed a Form 1040 for himself and his wife, but did not pay the tax due and owing. As a result, from approximately April 2012 through 2017, Hanna was subject to IRS collections enforcement for the 2010 through 2012 tax years, including forced collection activity, such as liens placed on property and seized payments taken by way of levy. From 2013 through 2020, Hanna earned approximately $1.6 million in taxable income from his work as a dentist and from rental income. However, he failed to file tax returns for any of those years, resulting in a loss to the IRS of $244,541. In addition to failing to file personal federal income tax returns, Hanna attempted to evade the assessment of tax by paying himself "management fees" instead of a reasonable wage, operating in cash by self-endorsing business checks to himself and cashing these checks to keep money out of his personal bank accounts, and paying personal expenses directly from his business accounts without reflecting those payments as income. Judge Williams scheduled sentencing for October 18, at which time Hanna faces a maximum term of imprisonment of five years. Hanna is released pending sentencing. This matter is being investigated by CI. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Susan Wines.
