And El Dorado Hills man is going to prison for committing 28-tax related felonies.

A federal jury on Sept. 26 found Donald M. Wanland Jr. guilty of attempting to evade personal income taxes from 200-03, failing to file tax returns for 2005-07, and multiple counts of removing, depositing, and concealing assets from the IRS in defiance of a levy.

Wanland, 53, was taken into custody following the verdict.

According to evidence, Wanland, a financially successful Sacramento-area attorney, evaded paying taxes for years. For tax years 2000 through 2003, he filed tax returns showing gross income of more than $1.5 million, for which he admitted owing taxes of $448,451. But he paid nothing.

When the IRS tried to collect, Wanland concealed the bank accounts that he used to receive and spend his income, and then filed no tax returns at all for years 2004 through 2007, according to authorities.

He continued working for his law firm and received more than $1 million during those years. When the IRS placed levies on his income in April 2005, Wanland repeatedly defied the levies by continuing to funnel his income to the concealed nominee accounts. He spent the money on various items including a $2,700 weekend at Squaw Valley, payments on a Mercedes Benz and a Cadillac Escalade, gambling in Las Vegas, vacations to Mexico and Hawaii, limousine services, and expenses for the pool at his home in El Dorado Hills. He also withdrew hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and wrote hundreds of thousands of dollars in checks out of the concealed accounts.

Wanland faces a maximum statutory penalty for tax evasion of five years in prison, and a $250,000 fine. The maximum statutory penalty for removing, depositing, and concealing assets in defiance of an IRS levy is three years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The maximum statutory penalty for willful failure to file tax returns is one year in prison and a $25,000 fine.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report