Fox News reports that a California man accused of trafficking in human organs was convicted yesterday in a Los Angeles courtroom:
A man was convicted Thursday of carving up cadavers donated to UCLA’s medical school and selling the parts to unsuspecting medical research companies in a $1.5 million scheme.
Jurors found Ernest Nelson, 51, guilty of eight counts, including grand theft and tax evasion. Prosecutors said Nelson could face a maximum of 12 years in prison and they want him to repay $1.5 million to UCLA.
Nelson “was willing to go into a willed body program and cut up body parts for his own personal financial gain,” prosecutor Marisa Zarate said after the verdict.
Nelson said he thought the acquisition and resale of the body parts was authorized by UCLA.
Yah, right!
A portly Penguin has a better chance of flying than that lame excuse.
By the way, if Nelson truly believed that what he was doing was perfectly legal, why didn’t he declare the income on his tax return?
Do you suppose listing “Retail Sales of Kidneys, Livers and Hearts” as your Schedule C business might be a smidgen of a red flag?
2 responses so far ↓
1 TaxRascal // May 15, 2009 at 11:07 am
Wow. That’s a pretty morbid way to make money. Maybe he was trying to spare the IRS the stomach-churning discomfort.
2 Kidney Salesman and Tax Evader Gets 10 Years // Jun 13, 2009 at 8:57 am
[...] month in a post titled Body Parts Trafficker Nailed for Tax Evasion
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