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Larry Lake and his wife, Kathy, were living a comfortable life in the Dallas suburbs until October 2010, when federal agents abruptly descended on their Colleyville home and left with some $6 million in cash.
The money, it seems, was legit, simply the revenue from Lakes’ companies, namely Grapevine Drug Mart, where he was a pharmacist, and VIP Finance, his auto title loan company. Shielding it from the IRS, as the couple was accused of doing, was not.
In October 2012, the Lakes were charged with multiple counts of tax evasion, having grossly under reported their income between 2006 and 2008. They owed the IRS some $4.8 million.
They were also accused of committing bankruptcy fraud for concealing some $3 million held in E*Trade and Compass Bank accounts just before the couple filed for bankruptcy in 2004.
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Lake was convicted this week on three counts of tax evasion and one count of bankruptcy fraud for which he faces a maximum 16 years in prison and $1 million fine. His wife died in December after a nine-year battle with cancer, according to obituaries, and so won’t go on trial.
At least the IRS shouldn’t have any trouble getting paid. On top of the $6 million from Lake’s home, the government seized $9.3 million from more than a dozen of the Lakes’ bank accounts.
