LOS ANGELES — Charles Conrad LoBello, a California-licensed attorney practicing in Las Vegas, was recently disbarred by the State Bar Court of California.
The disbarment came in lieu of the attorney’s felony conviction for tax evasion and filing false tax returns, according to the court's ruling on Feb. 4.
According to court documents, LoBello allegedly knowingly filed false tax returns between 2000 and 2006. During this time period, the attorney filed both income and business taxes, though he allegedly made a habit of reporting far below his actual earned income.
Around Jan. 18, 2006, LoBello knowingly filed a false tax return for the year 2002 stating that his taxable income was only $46,367 when it was really $375,957. He also reported his firm’s earnings as $58,472 when it was really $361,513. LoBello filed similarly false tax information in five other instances by providing inaccurate information to the person he charged with tax preparation.
LoBello was charged with five counts of tax evasion and five counts of filing false tax returns, according to the State Bar Ruling, but only pled guilty to one count of tax evasion as part of a plea agreement that included the payment of $260,625 in restitution to the IRS, a two-year prison sentence followed by two years of supervised release and substance abuse counseling.
LoBello allegedly did not file his conviction with the state bar in Nevada or California within the allotted time frame. He was temporarily suspended in Nevada by the state’s supreme court in July 2013 and later informed the California State Bar of the discipline. The California State Bar provided time for LoBello to appeal his conviction, but he did not. The attorney entered into a pretrial stipulation with the state bar court and disbarment was ordered.
LoBello was admitted to the California State Bar in 1988 upon graduation from the Pepperdine University School of Law and had no prior record of discipline.
A previous version of the story incorrectly stated that LoBello was convicted of one count of tax evasion. LoBello actually pled guilty to one count as part of a plea agreement.