Robert Hunter Biden (Hunter Biden) pleaded guilty in federal court in Los Angeles this afternoon to all counts in a nine-count indictment, including three felony tax offenses and six misdemeanor tax offenses. There was no plea agreement.
Judge Scarsi accepted the defendant’s guilty plea and scheduled sentencing for December 16, 2024.
According to the indictment, Hunter Biden engaged in a four-year scheme in which he chose not to pay at least $1.4 million in self-assessed federal taxes he owed for tax years 2016 through 2019 and to evade the assessment of taxes for tax year 2018 when he filed false returns. As alleged in the indictment, to further this scheme, Hunter Biden:
- subverted the payroll and tax withholding process of his own company by withdrawing millions outside of the payroll and tax withholding process;
- spent millions of dollars on an extravagant lifestyle rather than paying his tax bills;
- in 2018, stopped paying his outstanding and overdue taxes for tax year 2015;
- willfully failed to pay his 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019 taxes on time, despite having access to funds to pay some or all of these taxes;
- willfully failed to file his 2017 and 2018 tax returns, on time; and
- when he did finally file his 2018 returns, included false business deductions in order to reduce the very substantial tax liability he faced as of February 2020.
At sentencing, Hunter Biden faces a maximum penalty of 17 years in prison. Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after taking into account the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
Court documents and information for this case is located on the website of the District Court for the Central District of California or on PACER by searching for Case No. 2:23-cr-00599.
