Tainted toilet titan can keep his seat.

• Author: Speizer, Irwin
• Position: Tar Heel Tattler

Patrick Swisher once dreamed of being the world's toilet-cleaning king, with his Charlotte-based Swisher International Inc. spanning the globe with franchises. But while his company was keeping bathrooms smelling fresh, regulators were raising a stink over how he was sanitizing the books. Now he must come clean or risk a prison stay.

In February, he pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Charlotte to filing a false federal income-tax return and lying on a mortgage application. He faces up to three years in prison and up to $350,000 in fines, though he could avoid prison if he cooperates with federal investigators by helping them identify corporate tax-evasion schemes.

Swisher's problems date to 1998, when his auditor, McGladrey & Pullen, quit and told the Securities and Exchange Commission that the company was manipulating records to inflate its income. Swisher denied the allegations and sued McGladrey & Pullen. In a civil case, the SEC claimed that the company booked $450,000 from the sale of a Houston franchise in...