DOJ Seal

LOCAL BUSINESSMAN PLEADS GUILTY
TO CONSPIRACY TO COMMIT TAX FRAUD

August 30, 2004
United States Attorney's Office
Southern District of Ohio
303 Marconi Boulevard - Suite 200
Columbus, OH 43215

Tel: 614.469.5715
Fax: 614.469.2200
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
COLUMBUS - Abraham Amira, age 40, of Hilliard, Ohio, pleaded guilty today in United States District Court here to a one-count information charging him with conspiracy to defraud the United States for the purposes of committing tax fraud from the years 1993 to 2001.

Eileen J. O'Connor, Assistant Attorney General for the Department of Justice, Tax Division, Gregory G. Lockhart, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, and Cromwell A. Handy, Special Agent in Charge, Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Criminal Investigation, announced the plea entered before United States District Judge Algenon L. Marbley.

Abraham Amira is a Grandview Heights High School graduate, who has engaged in a number of businesses in the Columbus, Ohio area throughout the 1990's, including adult entertainment establishments, taverns, automobile sales and leasing, limousine services, and the selling of cell phones and pagers. Amira admitted that he conspired with, among others, his mother, to defraud the United States for the purposes of impeding and impairing the Internal Revenue Service by, among other things, concealing his individual and corporate income through the use of sham corporations, and nominees used to shelter the ownership of his personal and business assets.

In addition, Amira admitted that during the course of the conspiracy, he failed to maintain a personal bank account. Instead, he admitted he diverted funds from the many corporate accounts maintained by him and his mother to pay his personal expenditures, such as: the mortgage on his home, which was in the name of his mother; the insurance and storage costs for his many upscale cars, boats, and a plane; and lease payments on a condominium in Florida. Throughout the course of the charged conspiracy, Amira admitted that he bought and operated a 1990 Ferrari Testarosa, a 1997 Jaguar, a 1998 Harley Davidson motorcycle, a 1991 Lamborghini, a 1994 Dodge Viper, a 1997 Ferrari 355 Spider, a 1992 Ferrari, 1994 Corvette, a 1990 Porsche, 1995 ski boat, 1995 BMW, a recreational vehicle, a 1996 Piper airplane, two waverunners, a Baja boat, and a Jefforson yacht. The payments for the insurance, repairs, and in some instances, the acquisition of these assets were made with funds from an account in the name of a company that Amira had titled in his mother's name.

Finally, Amira admitted that he failed to file individual income tax returns reporting the income he earned during the years 1992 through 1998; that he filed false individual income tax returns for the years 1999 and 2000, and that he failed to file corporate income tax returns for any of the fifteen entities that he and his mother operated for the appropriate years between 1991 and 2000.

The maximum penalty for the conspiracy is a maximum five years imprisonment, a $250,000 fine, and three years of supervised release.

Further questions may be directed to trial attorney Rich Rolwing of the U.S. Department of Justice, Tax Division, Washington, D.C., at (614) 469-5715.

For additional comment contact Fred Alverson, Public Affairs Officer at 614.469.5715. The Internet address for the homepage for the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Ohio is www.usdoj.gov/usao/ohs.