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In 1996, Motsko began having serious back pain, and so
Evergreen’s truck and lowboy sat idle for weeks at a time. He
decided to sell them because of their carrying cost, and he
negotiated the selling price of $158,684. The truck and lowboy
were completely depreciated, so nearly the entire sale proceeds
would be taxable income, but Motsko and Manns did not set aside a
reserve. One reason for their failure is that the sale proceeds
might have been earmarked for settling a lawsuit brought against
Motsko, for reasons unknown, by a man named Jerry Sadler. Motsko
and Manns settled that suit in 1996 for $100,000, but whether the
money came from a loan or from the cash realized by the lowboy
sale is unclear. It is also possible that money from the sale
went toward construction on the Hydraulics Center property.
Then their troubles snowballed. In February 1997, Manns was
indicted on 13 counts of making and subscribing false income tax
returns for tax years 1985 and 1986, and 1988 through 1992. In
May, she pleaded guilty to five of these counts, and promised to
pay all back taxes, penalties, and interest. In September, she
also filed a sentencing statement saying that she accepted full
responsibility for her actions.
Motsko was never at any time implicated in her crimes, but
the criminal investigation did not cause them to change their
usual distribution of responsibilities. And with the criminal
case hanging over her, Manns had not taken the time to prepare
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Last modified: May 25, 2011