A Corona man has agreed to plead guilty to charges of tax fraud after failing to report more than $1.2 million in income from sales of Stan Lee-signed memorabilia, as announced by the Justice Department Wednesday. Mac Martin Anderson, 59, chose to admit to two counts of willfully subscribing to a false tax return after having a personal connection with the late Marvel Comics publisher, selling items signed by Lee from 2015 through 2018, as reported on the Justice Department's website.
The plea agreement outlined how Anderson carried out transactions at comic conventions, through various dealers; he took payments in cash or checks yet neglected the critical step of reporting this income to the IRS, ultimately evading taxes on substantial earnings over four years, with amounts varying each year but totaling an unreported $1,236,485, as per the Justice Department's release. The IRS regards these payments as regular income, necessitating their disclosure on annual tax returns, an obligation Anderson overlooked, resulting in him owing the IRS approximately $482,833.
Under the terms of his plea, Anderson is now on the hook for restitution of that same amount, which comes alongside the potential statutory maximum sentence of three years in prison for each count of his felony charges. The IRS Criminal Investigation took the lead in delving into Anderson's financial conduct, and the case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Mark Aveis of the Major Frauds Section and Sarah E. Spielberger of the Asset Forfeiture and Recovery Section.
The tax years in question saw Anderson rake in $289,460, $452,269, $414,166, and $80,590, respectively, from the sales; these figures came to light according to facts stated in his plea agreement, the Justice Department's notice of Anderson's agreement to pay indicates. Contact for the case has been directed to Public Affairs Officer Connor Williams, with significant restitution and potential incarceration at stake for the Corona man.
