Disgraced lawyer gets two years for tax fraud.

Byline: Pat Murphy

A federal judge in Boston has sentenced suspended Andover attorney Daniel P. Gibson to 24 months in prison for engaging in what prosecutors claimed was a multi-year scheme to avoid paying nearly $1 million in taxes.

The sentence handed down on Dec. 17 by U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani includes two years of supervised release. The judge directed the parties to submit briefing on the amount of restitution that Gibson should be required to pay.

In May, a jury convicted the 62-year-old lawyer of two counts of tax fraud and one count of conspiring to defraud the Internal Revenue Service.

The government introduced evidence that Gibson conspired with his accountant to prepare and file false tax returns in the tax years 2005, 2006, 2008 and 2009. Prosecutors claimed Gibson intentionally underreported approximately $3.7 million in income earned by his 40-lawyer Burlington litigation firm, the now-defunct Gibson & Behman.

As a result, the government alleged Gibson underreported his personal income by approximately $2.5 million and avoided taxes of more than $875,000.

In July 2011, the Supreme Judicial Court suspended Gibson for an indefinite period for "intentionally misusing" approximately $324,000 due his client and an insurer from a $1.4 million settlement Gibson obtained in a dram shop case.

Lawyers Weekly reported in April 2011 that Gibson had agreed to resign from the firm and that co-founding partner Scott R. Behman had filed suit accusing Gibson of fraudulently spending large chunks of client and firm money without anyone's knowledge.

Behman, who did not respond to a request for comment on Gibson's sentencing, founded Behman Hambleton, a litigation firm in Woburn, after the dissolution of Gibson & Behman.

In Gibson's criminal case, Martin G. Weinberg argued that his client should receive a lenient sentence no more than a year and a day of imprisonment.

"Mr. Gibson has demonstrated many admirable qualities throughout his six decades of life," Weinberg wrote in the defense's sentencing memorandum. "He worked his way up from humble beginnings to become an attorney and owner of a successful law firm. He started a family, becoming a dedicated husband and a loving father to four children. He was a consistently caring, helpful, and empathetic friend."

According to the Boston defense...

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