Saratoga News

Monte Sereno defendant pleads guilty to two counts of tax evasion

By Sarah Lombardo

A 55-year-old Monte Sereno resident pleaded guilty April 22 to tax evasion in federal District Court in San Jose, admitting to trying to hide nearly $1.4 million in both corporate and personal income over four years, according to attorney Michael Yamaguchi of the U.S. Department of Justice.

Dennis Collins, president and majority shareholder of San Jose Surgical Supply Inc., pleaded guilty to two counts of tax evasion, one count related to the nonpayment of his individual taxes for the 1992 tax year and one related to taxes owed by San Jose Surgical Supply for the fiscal year ending January 1993. In all, Collins failed to pay $1,392,064 in taxes between 1990 and 1994.

Collins is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 9 by District Judge James Ware. The maximum penalty for Collins' two offenses is 10 years in prison, a $500,000 fine and the costs of prosecution.

Collins was first indicted on 20 counts of evasion in April 1997.

San Jose Surgical Supply has branch stores in Fresno, Sacramento, Bakersfield and Westlake Village in Southern California. The company is estimated to have grossed more than $25 million over the same period as Collins' evasion.

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