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Ex-N.C. State Coach Convicted of Tax Evasion

A former head diving coach at North Carolina State University was sentenced to prison term Thursday after a jury found him guilty of state tax evasion.

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RALEIGH, N.C. — A former head diving coach at North Carolina State University was sentenced to prison term Thursday after a jury found him guilty of state tax evasion.
Michael H. Finneran, 58, of 121 Flora McDonald Lane in Cary, was convicted of five counts of attempting to evade or defeat

the North Carolina individual income tax. Superior Court Judge J. B. Allen Jr. sentenced him to 25 to 30 months in prison on the charges.

Finneran has indicated he will appeal the ruling.

Authorities said Finneran filed fraudulent state tax returns from 2002 to 2005, claiming on bogus W-2 forms that he had no income in any of those years. He also prepared and submitted a false employee’s withholding allowance certificate to his employer in 2003 in which

he claimed to be exempt from North Carolina’s withholding tax, authorities said.

Finneran didn't consider himself an employee of N.C. State or any other business during those four years, so the money paid to him during that time wasn't taxable wages, authorities said.

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