Local News in Brief : Accountant Faces 24 Tax, Perjury Counts

A federal grand jury indicted a North Hollywood accountant Thursday on charges of filing false federal income tax returns and perjury, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney’s office said.

The 24-count indictment also accuses Gerald L. Schulman, 54, of assisting in the preparation of false federal income tax returns and making false statements to a government official, spokeswoman Laura Henry said.

If convicted, Schulman could receive a prison term of 82 years and fines in excess of $140,000, Henry said.

Prosecutors said Schulman recruited thousands of investors in 1979 to join one of 12 partnerships that bought land to lease to the federal government as post office sites.

The indictment said returns that Schulman prepared for the 12 partnerships for the 1979 tax year listed assets ranging from $926,000 to $13.8 million and listed liabilities that nearly equaled the assets.

Schulman “knew the partnerships had no such assets or liabilities” and were not entitled to large interest deductions taken on the partnerships’ returns, the indictment said.

Schulman was also charged with falsely claiming a $2.6-million interest deduction on his personal income tax return for 1979 and listing smaller interest deductions on the returns of six other individuals the same year.