As of September 1, 2011, ALL 1,875 retail establishments are prohibited from providing light-weight, single-use plastic carryout bags to customers at the point of sale. MORE

By Ann K. Williams
Lookout Staff

September 21, 2011 -- In what defense attorneys are calling “a rare defeat for the U.S. Department of Justice,” Santa Monica businessman Howard Hal Berger was acquitted of criminal tax charges Friday.

Berger, who had been charged with claiming false deductions to the tune of more than $1 million and lying to a federal agent, was found not guilty after less than an hour of deliberations by a federal jury in United States District Court. (See Local Businessman Charged With Federal Tax Fraud, June 22, 2011.)

“This case began with a malicious and indefensible public arrest of Mr. Berger in front of his son’s elementary school after he dropped his son off on a Friday morning and ended with the jury’s complete repudiation of all of the government’s baseless accusations,” said Berger's attorneys, Nathan Hochman and Daniel Saunders.

Berger, who was arrested in June, was accused of falsely reporting a $1 million contribution on a partnership income tax return for Lab Holdings LLC for tax year 2006, substantially reducing his tax liability, according to officials at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Criminal Investigations Office.

In addition, Berger was charged with having claimed $991,700 in charitable contributions on his individual 2006 tax return, IRS officials said.

They claimed that while he was being audited, Berger provided a false charitable donation letter in an effort to substantiate the donations on his individual tax return.
During his trial, Berger's attorneys argued that he neither signed nor reviewed his 2006 tax return; that he was too absorbed in trying to get his 4-year-old son returned to the United States from South Africa after his ex-wife allegedly kidnapped the boy.

Hochman and Saunders also say that they proved in court that the federal agent who accused Berger of perjuring himself had no record of Berger's statements.
“The jury’s verdict in near record time demonstrates, as we have argued repeatedly, that this criminal prosecution was meritless and should never have been brought,” they said.

Had Berger been found guilty, he could have faced up to 9 years in federal prison and $750,000 in fines.

The investigation of Berger was conducted by IRS-Criminal Investigation in conjunction with the United States Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles.
Working with the U.S. State Department, Berger filed an application under the Hague Convention for International Child Abduction in 2005, fought an eight-month battle in the South African courts, and eventually got a court order to return his son back to Santa Monica in late 2006, his attorneys say.