Former Arizona legislator pleads guilty to false tax returns

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TUCSON, Ariz. - Former Arizona legislator and ex-Pima County Justice of the Peace Keith Bee has pleaded guilty in federal court to submitting false income tax returns.

Bee, a 55-year-old Republican, entered his plea last Friday in U.S. District Court in Tucson.

Bee is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 9 and is facing up to 10 months of prison or home confinement and must pay $343,000 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service, prosecutors said.

Bee served in the state House from 1991-93 and the Arizona Senate from 1993-2001 representing Tucson’s District 9. He was a justice of the peace from 2007-18 and retired from the bench soon after charges were made public. He was indicted in 2018.

According to the plea agreement, Bee admitted to the IRS that he submitted false tax returns in 2011-13 totaling nearly $215,000 in unpaid taxes for lavish sports cars he originally claimed were business expenses for his bus company.