Columbus – Lancaster Mayor Brian S. Kuhn today agreed to have his license as a certified public accountant revoked and plead guilty to two counts of attempted failure to file state tax returns for the years 2013 and 2014.

Kuhn was indicted in June on two felony counts of failure to file state income tax returns. As part of a plea agreement in Fairfield County Common Pleas Court, Kuhn agreed to give up his CPA license by Jan. 1, 2017, and not apply to have it reinstated for at least three years. The Accountancy Board of Ohio would decide whether to reinstate Kuhn’s license.

“It was important to me that Mr. Kuhn forfeit his CPA license because of the way he handled his personal affairs,” Auditor Yost said. “A rookie CPA knows to file income tax returns every year. Only because we found no evidence that his shortcomings affected the city in any way, were we amenable to this outcome.”  

Visiting Judge Linton Lewis of Perry County sentenced Kuhn to six months in the county jail, but suspended the sentence. Kuhn was sentenced to 90 days of house arrest and is required to wear electronic monitoring. He was fined $1,000 and must perform 100 hours of community service. 

Robert Smith, the Auditor of State's assistant chief legal counsel, served as special prosecutor for the case.
 

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The Auditor of State’s office, one of five independently elected statewide offices in Ohio, is responsible for auditing more than 5,900 state and local government agencies.  Under the direction of Auditor Dave Yost, the office also provides financial services to local governments, investigates and prevents fraud in public agencies and promotes transparency in government.

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Beth Gianforcaro
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614-644-1111