Man pleads guilty to hiding pot income

PORTLAND — An Old Orchard Beach man pleaded guilty Tuesday in U.S. District Court to tax evasion for failing to report income from marijuana sales.

James Kerr, 36, pleaded guilty to three counts of filing false and fraudulent income tax returns, U.S. Attorney Jay P. McCloskey said.

Kerr’s total profit from selling the drug between 1992 and 1994 was less than $83,000, McCloskey said. He purchased the marijuana and then resold it.

At a child custody hearing in Nevada in 1995, Kerr testified that he sold marijuana, sometimes as much as 10 pounds at a time, at a price of $1,200 per pound.

Between 1992 and 1994, Kerr deposited more than $175,000 in cash into a checking account at KeyBank of Maine. He stopped making large cash deposits after he learned he was under investigation by federal agents.