Guilty Plea Is Arranged in Tax Plot, by David Cay Johnston:

The owner of the nation’s largest maker of machine tools agreed yesterday to plead guilty to conspiracy in cheating the government out of $34.3 million in taxes through what the IRS called “deceptive and elaborate tax evasion schemes.” The businessman, Gene F. Haas, 55, of Camarillo, Calif., a coastal town 55 miles northwest of Los Angeles, will be the fourth and last defendant to admit guilt in the case, which involves his company, Haas Automation, as well as several others. He is to change his plea to guilty on Monday. The plea agreement is subject to approval by a Federal District Court judge in Los Angeles. …

Back taxes, a $5 million fine, fraud penalties of 40 percent and interest will bring Mr. Haas’s total cost for cheating on his 2000 and 2001 taxes to more than $70 million. He also agreed to serve two years in prison. …

The tax evasion apparently began with a patent infringement lawsuit against Mr. Haas. According to court papers, the schemes stemmed from Mr. Haas’s “dislike of the federal judicial system” and anger toward Leonie M. Brinkema, a federal judge who presided over the patent infringement suit, which Mr. Haas lost in August 2000. The indictment said that the primary purpose of the tax fraud was “to recoup the patent infringement settlement payment by defrauding” the government.