Tom C. Clark

“ In the first place, this evidence is merely corroborating respondent's cash-on-hand admissions and need not comply with the niceties of the annual accounting concept. While the evidence as a whole must show a deficiency for each of the prosecution years, the corroborative evidence suffices if it shows a substantial deficiency for the over-all prosecution period. Independent evidence that respondent understated his income by $30,000 in the same four-year period for which respondent's extrajudicial admissions tended to show a $46,000 deficiency is adequate corroboration. ”

“ The latter apparently was obtained from the respondent, and, standing uncorroborated, cannot serve to corroborate respondent's other admissions. The 1944 and 1945 returns show net taxable income of $4,162 and $7,328 respectively, with gross receipts from the coin machines of $9,266 and $10,302. This sketchy background can hardly give rise to an inference that defendant had no more cash at the starting date than the Government gave him credit for.
Accordingly, we must search for independent evidence which will tend to establish the crime directly, without resort to the net worth method. ”

“ Almost $16,000 in equipment was purchased in 1946; this accounts for nearly all of the cash hoard and still leaves a deficiency in 1946 of over $5,000 in unreported income. [5] The funds which remain are insufficient to absorb the income deficiencies of any subsequent prosecution years. [6]
As we said, the circumstances surrounding respondent's admissions create considerable doubt as to their reliability. We have therefore examined the independent evidence with great care to insure that the accused will not be convicted on the basis of a false admission alone. ”