S&L swindler Soderling charged with tax evasion

<p>A convicted savings and loan swindler whose subsequent development schemes contributed to the fall of Sonoma County's largest land investor, Clem Carinalli, now has been charged with federal tax evasion.</p><p>Jay Scott Soderling, 53, of Hidden Valley Lake in Lake County, appeared in federal court Thursday on one count of tax evasion, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. He is accused of avoiding $161,155 in federal income and employment taxes from 1995 through 2004, according to the U.S. Attorney.</p><p>Soderling was represented in court by a federal public defender, according to court records.</p><p>Soderling, a former Healdsburg resident, used a variety of methods to avoid paying taxes, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. He allegedly placed assets in the names of others; had debts paid to accounts he held in the names of others; submitted false financial statements to the IRS; and used funds from a bank account held in the names of others to pay creditors, take vacations and buy a boat and vehicle.</p><p>If convicted, he faces up to five years in prison and a fine of $250,000.</p><p>Soderling has a history of questionable financial dealings dating to the 1980s.</p><p>In 1987, he and his brother Leif pleaded guilty to bank fraud stemming from the collapse of their Golden Pacific Savings and Loan. Bank regulators said the Soderlings had stolen $16.5 million of depositors' money.</p><p>They served eight months in federal prison and were ordered to repay $10 million. The brothers returned to prison for three years in 1990 after going on a $500,000 spending spree in violation of a court order.</p><p>In 1998, Jay Soderling again was sentenced to prison after bouncing about $7,500 in checks in Marin County.</p><p>Soderling's connection to Lake County dates back at least to 1996, when he purchased 850 acres of land at Borax Lake. He enraged area residents in 2000 when he cut down hundreds of oak trees. In 2008, he was cited for trying to pump water out of Borax Lake in an attempt to create more developable land.</p><p>Soderling made additional Lake County land purchases beginning in 2002 and Carinalli began brokering loans for his projects.</p><p>From 2005 to 2007, Carinalli made a series of loans totaling $4.5 million to Soderling. Then, in 2007, Carinalli sold $2.25 million in interests in those loans to other investors, all backed by the Borax Lake property.</p><p>In 2009, Carinalli foreclosed on the Borax Lake property — worth just a fraction of its loan value — and stopped paying his investors. Carinalli's investments on other properties also tanked and he was forced into bankruptcy later that year.</p><p>Soderling also obtained loans from Sonoma County investors through his company Ripp It Inc. to develop a Clearlake orchard into warehouses. The project was never realized.</p><p>Soderling's criminal record includes an arrest for methamphetamine use in 2006 after he drove a new $150,000 Gulfstream motor home over the curb in front of the Sonoma County Sheriff's Office, walked into the lobby and told deputies the Mexican Mafia was trying to kill him.</p>