Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Former commissioner’s son, daughter-in-law indicted

Brian P. Atkinson-Turner, the son of former Clark County Commissioner, Yvonne Atkinson Gates, and his wife, Kathryn O’Gara, have been arrested on a federal tax evasion charges, U.S. Attorney Gregory A. Brower announced.

Atkinson-Turner and O’Gara are each charged with one count of filing a false tax return and two counts of failing to file a corporate tax return. They are scheduled to appear before a federal magistrate at 3 p.m. today.

The indictment alleges that Atkinson-Turner and O’Gara did not file tax returns for “Ad Vibe,” their political advertising company that earned $310,000 in 2004 and 2005.

Atkinson-Turner and O’Gara also failed to report $79,000 and $90,000 they received, respectively, in campaign funds from “Friends for Yvonne Atkinson Gates,” the indictment alleges.

Atkinson Gates resigned as a commissioner in March 2007, saying she wanted to spend more time with family and on her business and educational pursuits.

The Sun reported in April last year that Atkinson Gates used her campaign funds to pay her son, O’Gara and the young couple’s company, Advibe, at least $356,000 during her easy 2004 re-election bid.

Atkinson-Turner was only 21 at the time of the election, but told the Sun he was an experienced campaign strategist paid fairly for the work. See the article here.

The Sun also reported that Advibe got $58,000 to register voters in 2004 from a controversial non-profit organization called Fighting AIDS in Our Community Today (FACT). The group was operated by Michael Chambliss, a longtime political consultant to Atkinson Gates. Chambliss now faces murder charges in the stabbing death of a man in November.

After FACT paid Advibe in 2004, Atkinson Gates voted three times to allocate county grants totaling $408,000 to FACT without disclosing her ties to Chambliss or her son’s ties to FACT. See the article here.

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