In the 1928 case of Cogen v. United States, the Supreme Court ruled on a matter concerning tax evasion and fraud. The defendant, Mr. Cogen, was accused of evading taxes by underreporting his income from illegal activities related to alcohol during Prohibition. He argued that forcing him to report this income would violate his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination since he would essentially be admitting to criminal activity in doing so. However, the court disagreed with this argument and upheld his conviction for tax evasion. The justices held that while individuals cannot be compelled to incriminate themselves through testimony or other forms of evidence, they are still required by law to pay taxes on their income regardless of its source - legal or illegal. This ruling established an important precedent in U.S tax law: all income is taxable even if it's earned illegally; failure to report such earnings can result in charges for tax evasion.

In the dissenting opinion for Cogen v. United States, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. argued that the defendant's conviction should be overturned due to a lack of evidence proving his intent to defraud. He believed that while it was clear that Cogen had made false statements in order to secure loans from banks, there was no concrete proof showing he intended these falsehoods as a means of deception or fraudulence towards those institutions. The majority ruling held that such an intention could be inferred from the fact of his misrepresentations alone; however, Holmes disagreed with this interpretation and felt it unjustly presumed guilt without sufficient supporting evidence.