Mansion Bills Charged to the Firm

A wealthy hotel and property owner spent hundreds of thousands of dollars doing up her country mansion. Prosecutors say the bills were sent to companies she controlled and written up as business expenses, using invoices describing work the businesses never received. That let the firms claim deductions and kept the spending off her own tax return. The law here requires proof she acted wilfully - that she knew what she was doing was wrong - not simply that the returns turned out to be inaccurate.