A 2015 McLaren 650S Spider cost $187,432.34. A 2021 Aston Martin DBX cost $277,698.50. The Justice Department says a San Diego man paid for both while owing the IRS more than $6.7 million in income taxes he never paid, and he has now pleaded guilty to tax evasion.
The man is Peter L. Roper. He faces up to five years in prison, and sentencing is set for January 8.
What Roper admitted in court
The Justice Department’s October 15 announcement says Roper pleaded guilty the day before to one count of tax evasion. Prosecutors say he operated several La Jolla-based businesses that marketed and sold purported federal tax credits nationwide.
Roper and his businesses received nearly $19 million in income from 2010 through 2021, the department says. Neither he nor the businesses reported that income or paid taxes on it to the IRS. The department puts the unpaid federal income tax at more than $6.7 million.
Prosecutors say he hid the money in two ways. He used business bank accounts to pay personal expenses, and he put assets in the names of other people. The car purchases are the examples the government chose to highlight, along with what it describes as other unspecified expenses.
Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald of the department’s National Fraud Enforcement Division and U.S. Attorney Adam Gordon of the Southern District of California announced the plea. Trial Attorneys John C. Gerardi and Charles A. O’Reilly of the division’s Tax Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Nathan Brooks are prosecuting. IRS Criminal Investigation investigated.
The department does not mention restitution or fines in the announcement. A judge will set the sentence after weighing the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
The question most readers bring to a case like this is simple: how does the IRS find out? Someone who stops filing returns, or files without reporting income, may assume nobody is looking. The IRS names three ways a criminal tax case can begin.
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Three doors into a criminal tax case
IRS Criminal Investigation lists the sources on its page about how criminal investigations are initiated. A case can start inside the IRS, when a revenue agent who audits returns, a revenue officer who handles collections, or an investigative analyst detects possible fraud. It can start with information that, in the agency’s words, is routinely received from the public. And it can start with an investigation another law enforcement agency already has underway.
The announcement in San Diego does not say how the Roper case began.
Why the cars matter to investigators
IRS Criminal Investigation says on its About page that proving a taxpayer willfully hid income is often part of proving other crimes, including fraud and money laundering. Spending is one way to show that. A person who reports little income but buys a six-figure car, pays personal bills from a business account and titles property in someone else’s name leaves a trail that agents can follow.
The two vehicles alone add up to roughly $465,000, a little under 7 percent of the $6.7 million in tax the government says went unpaid. The department does not say what the rest of the money paid for beyond personal expenses and other unspecified purchases.
The agency also says special agents must follow strict procedures to open an investigation and recommend prosecution to the Justice Department, including approval by several IRS officials. It reports a federal conviction rate above 90 percent and says it has 20 field offices across the country.
IRS Criminal Investigation describes its special agents as the only federal law enforcement agents with jurisdiction over Internal Revenue Code violations. Its caseload covers tax fraud along with narcotics trafficking, money laundering, public corruption, health care fraud and identity theft.
None of that makes an audit or an investigation likely for an ordinary household. It describes what the agency does once it believes income was deliberately hidden. The IRS page points readers who suspect tax fraud to its tax-fraud reporting page.
What the evasion statute allows
Tax evasion is a felony under 26 U.S.C. 7201. A person who willfully attempts to evade or defeat a federal tax can be fined up to $100,000, or $500,000 for a corporation, and imprisoned up to five years, or both, and can be ordered to pay the costs of prosecution. Those are maximums. The judge decides the actual sentence.
The five-year figure in the Roper announcement matches that ceiling. The income at issue spans 2010 through 2021.
The tax bill that comes with a plea
A prison term does not erase the tax debt. The announcement does not say whether Roper will be ordered to repay the roughly $6.7 million, and it does not say whether the government has seized any assets, including the two cars.
Roper’s businesses sold what prosecutors call purported federal tax credits. Anyone offered a credit for a fee can confirm with the IRS itself whether it exists before paying for it.
The open question for most people reading this is not how to hide income but how to make sure they are not missing money that is legitimately theirs. The IRS sources above describe how the agency finds those who hide income. They say nothing about programs that go unclaimed because a household never applied.
Which of 11 benefit programs has your household never checked?
A tax bill is not the only expensive mistake. Households that file honestly can still lose money every month to programs they never applied for, because most benefits for older Americans are opt-in and never arrive on their own.
The Benefits Checklist moves from this story’s tax question to a different money question: what a household may be missing. It scans eleven benefit programs retirees most often miss, including Medicare Savings Programs, Extra Help, SNAP, heating help and property-tax breaks, with the 2026 income limits beside each one.
Scan 11 benefit programs against the 2026 income limits with the Benefits Checklist →
More Financial Reading
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- The New $6,000 Senior Deduction and 14 More Tax Moves for Retirees
This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by the editorial team.
Warren Cohen is a finance writer based in Phoenix, Arizona, covering personal finance topics including credit, banking, and beginner investing. He earned his degree in business administration from Arizona State University and began his career working in consumer finance, where he gained direct experience with lending and credit systems. He now writes for personal finance websites and fintech platforms, focusing on clear, practical content that helps readers make informed financial decisions.
