IRS TO CHARGE CHIN ESTATE $200,000 IN TAXES, NO FINES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000504650015-9
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 9, 2012
• Sequence Number: 15
• Publication Date: February 28, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/09: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504650015-9
WASHINGTON POST
28 February 1986
IRS to Charge Chin Estate
0200,000 in Taxes, No Fines
4' By Caryle Murphy
wa*,hintttoo Poet Staff Writer
The estate of convicted spy Larry
Wu-Tai Chin will be responsible for
paying the Internal Revenue Service
about $200,000 in back taxes, but
will not be assessed for criminal
fines, federal officials said yesterday.
Chin, a former CIA analyst, com-
mitted suicide in his Prince William
County jail cell a week ago while
awaiting sentencing on his Feb. 7
conviction on 17 counts of espionage,
conspiracy, tax evasion and failing to
report overseas bank accounts.
He faced a maximum penalty of
two life sentences, plus 83 years and
$3.3 million in criminal fines.
However, criminal fines cannot
be levied against Chin's estate, said
Justice Department spokesman
John Russell. They can be imposed
only on individuals, he said.
Chin's son Homer said yesterday
that the IRS had calculated that his
father owed about $137,000 in back
taxes and penalties for the years
1978 through 1984. Interest would
bring the total liability to about
$200,000, he said.
According to trial testimony,
Chin received about $180,000 from
Chinese intelligence agents for clas-
sified information he got in his job
at the CIA's Foreign Broadcast In-
formation Service. He kept it in
Hong Kong banks.
Although federal prosecutors
suggested at his trial that Chin sold
classified information to China be-
cause he needed money to pay gam-
bling debts, the IRS has included
unreported gambling income when
calculating Chin's past tax liability,
Homer Chin said.
IRS Agent Wilson McCarthy tes-
tified at Chin's trial that records
showed Chin paid $96,700 in gam-
bling debts to casinos in 1976
through 1982.
Homer Chin said that when rental
properties owned by his father and
valued at $700,000 were sold they
would net less than $100,000 be
cause most of them were mortgaged.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/09: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504650015-9