Couple convicted of tax evasion

Associated Press

Updated: Aug 18, 2012 2:36 PM

ALBUQUERQUE (AP) — A Rio Rancho couple faces up to five years in federal prison after they were convicted of three counts each of tax evasion.

The U.S. attorney's office in Albuquerque says a jury found former lobbyist 49-year-old Joseph Kupfer and his 50-year-old wife Elizabeth Kupfer guilty late Friday afternoon after a five-day trial.

The Kupfers were convicted of failing to report at least $768,000 in income they received from Joseph Kupfer's consulting business. The couple will remain free until an as-yet unscheduled sentencing hearing.

Joseph Kupfer faces another trial in October along with Corpus Christi, Texas, political consultant Armando G. Gutierrez.

They are facing eight counts of embezzling federal election money by overbilling for services in a voter education project. Kupfer and Gutierrez had pleaded not guilty in that case.

(Separate charges against then-Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron are still pending in state court.)
 

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