NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – This week a federal jury convicted a former Lake County couple of conspiracy to defraud the United States, with the husband – who has a 1987 conviction for bank fraud in a savings and loan scandal – additionally convicted of one count of tax evasion.
Jay Scott Soderling and Jessica Lynn Soderling, who now live in Santa Rosa but previously lived in Hidden Valley Lake, were convicted Tuesday after a five-day jury trial before United States District Judge Honorable Vince Chhabria, according to Acting United States Attorney Brian J. Stretch and Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation, Acting Special Agent in Charge Andrew Toth.
Assistant United States Attorneys Michael G. Pitman and Jose A. Olivera are prosecuting the case, with the prosecution the result of an investigation by the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation.
Court records show the Soderlings are set to be sentenced on April 5 in San Francisco.
The US Attorney's Office said the maximum penalty for the conspiracy conviction is five years in prison and a fine of $250,000, while the count of tax evasion carries the same maximum time in prison and fine.
Jay Soderling was arrested in September 2011 while he was still living in Lake County, as Lake County News has reported.
Officials said the evidence at trial showed that the defendants were both involved in efforts to conceal assets from the IRS to avoid payment of Jay Soderling’s tax liabilities.
Specifically, during 2004 and 2005, Jay Soderling evaded payment of his tax liabilities by hiding money and assets belonging to him in the name of a corporation, prosecutors said.
Subsequently, in 2008 and 2009, after the IRS discovered Jay Soderling was keeping his personal assets in the corporation, he and his wife worked together to further conceal assets by, among other things, moving money from the corporation’s account into a bank account opened for this purpose in Jessica Soderling’s name, the US Attorney's Office said.
Jay Soderling originally was indicted on Aug. 9, 2011, for a single count of tax evasion, with a superseding indictment later filed adding the conspiracy charge against the couple.
In finding Jay and Jessica Soderling guilty of conspiracy, the jury concluded that the evidence demonstrated the defendants obstructed the lawful functions of the IRS by deceitful or dishonest means as charged in the indictment.
In addition, the evidence produced at trial demonstrated that Jay Soderling willfully evaded payment of taxes he owed to the United States.
According to papers filed with the court, beginning in July 2004, the IRS began attempting to collect Jay Soderling’s tax liabilities. He admitted owing the IRS approximately $90,000, but he made written and oral statements to IRS employees misrepresenting his ability to pay the debt.
Among other things, Jay Soderling told the IRS he had no significant assets, that he had negligible income, and that he did not expect his financial situation to change. In reality, he knew that he was well on his way to receiving an enormous financial windfall from several real-estate transactions.
The government also demonstrated Jay Soderling failed to disclose his use of corporate funds to purchase a Dodge Viper, a new boat and other personal items.
Soderling has a criminal record that extends back nearly three decades. In 1987 he and his brother Leif pleaded guilty to bank fraud for stealing millions of dollars from depositors in their roles as directors and officers at the Golden Pacific Savings & Loan in Santa Rosa.
The brothers would serve eight months in prison and be ordered to pay $6 million in restitution to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., which they failed to do, going on a $500,000 spending spree while they were on probation.
That resulted in a judge sending them back to prison for six years each. Jay Soderling later would be sent back to prison again for a separate probation violation.
The Soderling brothers, neither of whom had contractor's license, worked for several years in construction in Lake County, leaving behind large bills with local vendors.
Jay Soderling destroyed oak woodlands on an 850-acre property that he owned for a time surrounding Borax Lake, which neighbors claimed he had tried to drain. That land was foreclosed on in 2009 by a Sonoma County developer from whom Jay Soderling had borrowed money.