Michael Fitzgibbons, a Wayzata marketing executive, was convicted this month of dodging a half-million bucks in Minnesota taxes on millions of income over several years. Fitzgibbons, 53, was a star at Eagan-based North American Communications Resources, a communications firm.
He was found guilty of 10 felony counts involving failure to file income tax returns between 2003 and 2007, as his income from salary, bonuses and investments regularly topped $2 million.
Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman pointed to the conviction as a victory for taxpayers. Fitzgibbons also becomes the poster child for state and federal revenuers, as we near the April 15 filing deadline.
Fitzgibbons' defense? He contended that he believed the amount withheld from wages covered his state and federal tax liability. So he didn't file a return.
"This is a tragic story," said Peter Wold, attorney for Fitzgibbons. "This guy is utterly unsophisticated. I mean, he carried around a $1 million bonus check in his briefcase for four weeks before somebody said he should deposit it. He paid $2.6 million over those years in federal and state withholding. There was nothing that Michael Fitzgibbons did that was not in good faith."
Prosecutors alleged that Fitzgibbons rushed to file returns once he learned he was being investigated by the IRS and Minnesota revenue agents.
But Wold, who said this case never should have become a criminal matter, said: "He has paid his taxes to the feds and the state [and] his accountant is negotiating interest and penalties. Minnesota will end up ahead."
Veteran white-collar prosecutor Tom Fabel said Fitzgibbons ignored letters from the tax man and that he is a sophisticated conniver. He will be sentenced May 2 by Hennepin County District Judge Marilyn Rosenbaum.
Ability moves to Butler
Ability Network, a fast-growing developer of Web-based health networks, is heading downtown to the restored, century-old Butler Square building, where the company plans to add 100 jobs by the end of 2012.
The decade-old company, formerly known as VisionShare, electronically connects thousands of hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, medical clinics and physicians with consumers, insurers and Medicare.
Ability says it reduces the cost of providing care by decreasing length of patient stays and helping prevent unnecessary, redundant tests and treatments not addressed by current technologies.
"We see so many fragmented clinical records -- where caregivers were only provided a piece ... of a patient's complete record," said CEO Mark Briggs. "We reduce this fragmentation, bring more complete information to caregivers and directly improve patient safety and quality of care. More complete information enables caregivers to construct efficient care plans, reduce duplicative and unnecessary costs, and remain competitive with payment reform."
WE ARE A HOTBED FOR GOOD JOBS
THE MINNEAPOLIS AREA IS A PLUM JOB MARKET, ACCORDING TO AJILON PROFESSIONAL STAFFING, WHICH EXAMINED U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR STATISTICS, LOCAL INDUSTRIES, COST OF LIVING, EDUCATION LEVELS AMONG RESIDENTS AND OTHER FACTORS.
Winter was not one of them.
The Twin Cities "record the lowest unemployment rate of all the cities in the ranking, brought about by the large companies in financial services, health care, retail and manufacturing that have picked up their hiring activities," said Jodi Chavez, an Ajilon senior vice president, told Forbes.com. "As hiring has picked up, companies in this market are also showing demand for highly specialized positions: specialty tax, IT audit or compliance-related jobs that were not available during the recession."
Chavez said the city's low crime and poverty rates and relatively low cost of living for a major metropolitan center create a "sweet spot of offering jobs with relatively high pay while having a low-cost of living."
Austin, Texas, is No. 2, as a lower-cost alternative to Silicon Valley, Chavez said, complete with warm weather, an eclectic cultural scene and several universities.
WOMEN HELPING WOMEN SUCCEED
Women from some of the Twin Cities' top companies will gather at the W Hotel on April 8 to learn about "Dress for Success," a nonprofit that accepts second-hand business apparel and works with disadvantaged women breaking into the workforce. More information: www.dressforsuccess.org/affiliate.aspx?sisid=130&pageid=1.
