Kimberling City doctor pleads guilty, admits he didn't pay taxes

(From the U. S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri)

Tammy Dickinson, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a Kimberling City, Mo., man who worked as an emergency room physician pleaded guilty in federal court today to failing to file tax returns despite earning hundreds of thousands of dollars in income each year.

Phillip Edward Psaltis, 64, of Kimberling City, waived his right to a grand jury and pleaded guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge David P. Rush to a federal information that charges him with two counts of failing to file an income tax return.

Psaltis worked as an emergency room physician at Lawton Indian Hospital in Lawton, Okla., in 2011 and at Claremore Indian Hospital in Claremore, Okla., in 2010. Psaltis worked as an emergency room physician at Barton County Memorial Hospital in Lamar, Mo., from 2006 to 2009 and at Pike County Memorial Hospital in Louisiana, Mo. in 2008 and 2009.

By pleading guilty today, Psaltis admitted that he has failed to file federal income tax returns since 2002. The total tax loss from Psaltis’s unreported income during those years is $1,118,824.

The two specific charges to which Psaltis pleaded guilty today relate to his failure to file a federal tax return for 2009, when he earned approximately $450,664, and for 2010, when he earned approximately $433,339.

Psaltis admitted that he failed to file federal income tax returns for 2009, 2010 and 2011. Psaltis’s unreported income during those years totaled $1,204,786 and the total tax loss was $377,022. According to today’s plea agreement, Psaltis also owes $551,434 in outstanding federal taxes for the years 2002 through 2008. Because Psaltis did not file his 2012 tax return, the plea agreement says, it is estimated that he will owe approximately $128,109 in tax liability for 2012.

In addition to the federal taxes owed, the plea agreement also says that Psaltis owes $62,259 in Missouri and Oklahoma state income tax for the years 2009, 2010 and 2011. Psaltis’s medical license was suspended three times – on Dec. 14, 2009, on July 16, 20102, and on June 11, 2013 – for delinquency of Missouri state taxes or failure to file state income tax returns.

Under federal statutes, Psaltis is subject to a sentence of up to two years in federal prison without parole, plus a fine up to $200,000 and an order of restitution. A sentencing hearing will be scheduled after the completion of a presentence investigation by the United States Probation Office.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven M. Mohlhenrich. It was investigated by IRS-Criminal Investigation.