A federal judge imposed a fine of $5,000 Tuesday on Peter Hoffman, CEO of the now defunct Carolco Pictures Inc., bringing to a close a lengthy criminal tax investigation and trial that resulted last month in a misdemeanor plea.
At the sentencing hearing, U.S. District Court Judge John Davies said that while a fine was appropriate, he had decided against jail time or probation for Hoffman. "The damage to Mr. Hoffman (caused by the indictment and trial) can't be ignored," said Davies. "He has suffered probably more than one should suffer in a tax dispute."
Under federal sentencing guidelines, Hoffman faced a maximum six month sentence, but most observers considered jail time unlikely in this case.
Hoffman's lawyers, Tom Pollack and Brian Hennigan of Irell & Manella, said, "The government's two year effort to prosecute Mr. Hoffman for alleged tax offenses has ended with a thud."
But assistant U.S. attorneys Monica Bachner and Patrick Fitzgerald, who tried the case for the government, said, "We're pleased that the court has imposed a fine at the high end of the applicable guideline range and that Mr. Hoffman has filed amended returns reporting the vast bulk of the previously unreported income."
Hoffman pleaded guilty March 17 to one misdemeanor count of filing a false tax return. The misdemeanor charge was a far cry from the original indictment, which contained four felony tax charges involving $1 million in unreported income.
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