SALT LAKE CITY — A federal judge Tuesday found a former manager of a Utah-based escort service guilty of attempted tax evasion for failing to pay more than $400,000 in taxes in 2002.
U.S. District Judge Dee Benson issued the guilty ruling Tuesday. The three-day trial for Jodi Hoskins, 35, of Las Vegas, was held in January.
Hoskins was working as the business manager at Companions Escort Service throughout 2002, when she and her then-husband, Roy Hoskins, who owned the business, failed to pay $485,443 in taxes.
According to the decision, the Hoskins underreported as much as $1,204,354. Although they accepted both cash and credit payments, they never made any cash deposits in 2002. It was estimated that as much as 70 percent of their payments were made in cash. The couple jointly claimed an income of only $70,064 in 2002, an indictment states.
During the trial, Jodi Hoskins' attorney, Shawn Perez, argued that while his client had signed the tax return as Roy Hoskins' wife in 2003, she was not married to him in 2002 when the taxes weren't paid. Perez also questioned whether Jodi Hoskins signed the tax form voluntarily.
"She signed the return, she admitted that," he said. "But one of the witnesses had been kidnapped by Roy, another had the life of her child threatened, and Jodi was beat over the head with a mirror and pistol-whipped. When the relationship started, it was a pimp-prostitute relationship. Did she do anything voluntarily? Probably not."
But Benson found that, violence aside, Jodi Hoskins had "beyond a reasonable doubt" owed a "substantial" tax, had intended to evade the tax, had "falsely signed the tax form and definitely committed an act of evasion."
No sentencing date has been set. She faces up to five years in prison and may be ordered to pay restitution. Perez said he will argue against both, because he says it was Roy Hoskins' tax.
Roy Hoskins pleaded guilty to two counts of attempted tax evasion in May but has yet to be sentenced.
e-mail: emorgan@desnews.com