Mark C. Scarsi, a Trump-appointed judge, is presiding over Hunter Biden’s most recent federal indictment on tax evasion charges. He currently serves as the U.S. district judge for the Central District of California.
Scarsi was selected at random to oversee the case against Biden, which includes nine new charges alleging a “four-year scheme,” when he did not pay his federal income taxes from January 2017 to October 2020 while also filing false tax reports.
HUNTER BIDEN FACES NEW INDICTMENT IN CALIFORNIA
Hunter Biden and his wife Melissa Cohen walk to a bookstore in Nantucket, Massachusetts, on Nov. 24, 2023. (Photo by BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)
The charges break down to three felonies and six misdemeanors centered around $1.4 million in owed taxes that were since paid.
Scarsi was confirmed by the Senate in 2020 after being nominated by former President Trump.
He spent most of his career on civil litigation “with an emphasis on intellectual property,” according to his bio on California’s district court website, and has represented Fortune 100 companies such as Apple and Google.
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Hunter Biden walks with family members in Nantucket, Massachusetts, on Nov. 24, 2023. (REUTERS/Tom Brenner)
Earlier this year, Scarsi sentenced a California construction owner to two years in prison after failing to report more than $4.8 million in income over a five-year span and failure to pay nearly $2 million in taxes.
In March, Scarsi sentenced a man to 10 years in prison for scamming eight romantic partners, as well as nine businesses and laundering funds.
In Ocober, he ruled that the owner of an Orange County real estate finance business would spend more than five years in prison for “fraudulently obtaining” nearly $6.2 million from an investor by making false promises that shares of his private company were on the verge of going public.
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Hunter Biden is facing new charges related to alleged failure to pay income taxes over a four-year period. (Photo by Celal Gunes/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
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Last year, he also sentenced a Los Angeles-based actor to 20 years in prison and ordered him to pay over $230,000 in restitution to his victims after he pleaded guilty to scamming $650 million from film investors.
Also in 2022, he sentenced a former lawyer to more than three years for scamming clients, leading them to believe he won cases by forging judges’ signatures.
Scarsi was born in 1964 in Syracuse, New York. He studied computer science at Syracuse University and earned both his bachelor’s and master’s degree. In 1996, he earned his law degree from Georgetown University Law Center.
In addition to his career in California, he also worked at two New York district courts in 2010.
Fox News’ Houston Keene contributed to this report.