A Pennsylvania dentist acquitted of tax fraud has filed a federal lawsuit claiming his constitutional rights were violated and that he was maliciously prosecuted when he was charged in 2016.
Forty Fort, Pa.-based periodontist Charles Musto, DMD, was charged with federal tax fraud violations in 2016 when he was accused of underreporting income associated with his practice on a 2010 tax return. He was acquitted in 2019.
According to a July 22 Yahoo News article, he is now suing the federal government in addition to several IRS employees, claiming that the government violated his constitutional rights when it opened a criminal investigation against him after he invoked his Fifth Amendment rights and when it could not prove he reported his income incorrectly.
An official response has not been filed by the government in court, but the case has been assigned to a United States District Court judge. A hearing is scheduled for Sept. 9.