Career criminal gets only 8 months for tax evasion

[Demosthenes]

December 19, 2008
By BILL BIRD Staff Writer

A Naperville man who authorities said has been convicted of 19 crimes in 24 years has been sentenced to eight months in federal prison on income tax evasion charges.

Frank P. Qualtier, 42, was also placed on a year of probation and ordered to pay $162,534 in restitution, according to Maria Suarez, a special agent and public information officer of the Chicago field office of the Internal Revenue Service's criminal investigation unit.

A defense psychologist who examined Qualtier earlier this year reported he has "a chronic mental illness, namely, bipolar disorder," Suarez said. Prosecutors contended "a sufficient showing still has not and cannot be made that these mental health issues are connected to the tax crimes at issue," and that Qualtier's condition did not impair "his ability to pay his taxes accurately and in a timely fashion," Suarez said.

But U.S. District Court Judge Robert Gettlemen, who sentenced Qualtier on Tuesday, said the bipolar diagnosis "warranted a downward departure from the sentencing guidelines," under which Qualtier could have been sentenced to two years in prison, Suarez said.

Qualtier operated Innovative Renovations, a home remodeling business, out of his house on the 1100 block of Thackery Lane, in the Ashbury neighborhood on Naperville's far south side.

He was charged April 9 with filing false tax returns or failing to file them over a four-year period, during which he earned more than $800,000.

IRS officials charged Qualtier with a felony count of filing a false 2001 income tax return, when he claimed to have been unemployed. He and his wife, in fact, made just under $120,000 that year, according to the IRS.

Qualtier was also hit with three misdemeanor charges of failing to file income tax returns between 2002 and 2004. Authorities said his gross income during that period totaled nearly $700,000.

A week after the charges were filed, Qualtier was arrested and charged with battery, following a brawl in a tavern in downtown Naperville. He was Tasered several times by police before he could be taken into custody.

Suarez added Qualtier has had 19 criminal convictions since he turned 18.

Qualtier is scheduled to surrender Feb. 2 to begin serving his prison term.

[Judge Roy Bean]

Apparently no one contracting with this goofball ever checked to see who they were letting into their homes to do remodeling.

What are the chances he'll show up in February?