A date has been set in the federal tax evasion trial of Vicksburg attorney Marshall Sanders.

U.S. District Judge David Bramlette will hear arguments in the case beginning Nov. 18 in Natchez, according to the Tax Division of the U.S. Department of Justice.

Sanders, 57, was indicted in May on three counts alleging tax evasion in 2000, 2001 and 2002. The indictment alleges Sanders grossed nearly $3.4 million in those years and that no return had been filed since 1994.

Also, it alleges Sanders improperly used a trust account customarily used by attorneys as for client funds, real estate closings and other matters. It accuses Sanders of using his escrow account to hold and dispense his personal income and says he made false statements to an Internal Revenue Service agent about the use of the account. 

He faces up to 15 years in prison, possible payments equal to tax liability on his income and a $300,000 fine.

Sanders, who has an economics degree from Harvard University and a law degree from Emory University, pleaded innocent to the charges and was released in May on a $10,000 bond. He has practiced mostly civil law in Vicksburg since 1977.

Under Mississippi Bar Association rules, a felony conviction results in the loss of a state-required license to practice law. The IRS is part of the Department of the Treasury. The tax investigation arm of the Justice Department is handling the case because it involves inconsistencies in filing income tax returns.

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Contact Danny Barrett Jr. at dbarrett@vicksburgpost.com.