Freeport Woman Sentenced to 6 Months in Jail for Cheating Tax Department; Must Pay Back $278K

Stole McDonald’s sales tax revenue, worked with NYPD detective and State Tax Dept. employee to cheat system

MINEOLA, NY – Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice announced today that Lynn George Robinson has been sentenced by a Nassau County judge to six months in jail and five years probation after being convicted of evading personal income taxes and failing to turn over nearly $200,000 in required sales tax payments on several McDonald’s restaurants she owned during the 1990s. Robinson must also pay $278,678.48 in back taxes, penalties, and interest.

Robinson, 52, of Freeport, was found guilty by a jury in June of Scheme to Defraud in the First Degree, Repeated Failure to File Personal Income Taxes, and four counts of Criminal Possession of a Forged Instrument in the Second Degree.

Rice said that during the 1990s, state tax officials caught Robinson hiding assets to avoid the collection of nearly $200,000 in required sales tax payments to the State from several McDonald’s franchises she owned. Unable to collect the money, the NYS Tax Department issued a lien on Robinson’s Freeport home in January 1999. The lien also applied to any personal property, vehicles, and bank accounts and allowed for the State to garnish Robinson’s salary.

Robinson soon lost the franchises and in a 2001 bid to stave off foreclosure of her home and further conceal assets from tax officials, Robinson “sold” the property to Leroy Nelson, an NYPD detective assigned to the Internal Affairs Bureau who was acting illegally as a “straw buyer” of the house. Robinson also enlisted the help of Charles Belgrave, a NYS Tax Department compliance officer, who helped her hide her money in a bank account in his name, thus avoiding her assets from being seized. Robinson also failed to declare her income during tax years 2003 – 2005 and after indictment, filed false personal income tax returns.

Nelson was arrested in April 2006 and pleaded guilty to Scheme to Defraud in the First Degree in July 2007. He served no jail time but was forced to resign from the NYPD after 22 years on the job. Belgrave was arrested in July 2007 and pleaded guilty to Scheme to Defraud in the First Degree and Conspiracy in the Fifth Degree. He resigned from his position in the NYS Tax Department.

“Jail time is the only sufficient punishment for a woman who defrauded the taxpayers of this state and involved two government employees to continue a lifestyle she had to steal to maintain,” Rice said. “In this case, the cover-up was probably worse than the crime itself.”

Rice commended the worked done by the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance and the District Attorney Investigators assigned to the case.

New York State Department of Taxation and Finance Commissioner Robert L. Megna said, "The Tax Department has significantly increased its commitment to combating tax fraud. Our newly-formed Special Investigations Unit is working across the state with local district attorneys to expose and prosecute those who engage in tax fraud and criminally conspire to cheat honest taxpayers and deprive state and local governments of needed tax revenue. I thank District Attorney Rice and her staff for helping to bring these criminals to justice."

Bureau Chief Diane Peress and ADA Guido Gabriele of the DA’s Economic Crimes Bureau are handling the case for the District Attorney’s Office. Robinson is being represented by Robert Didio, Esq.