Jeffrey H. Sloman, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and Daniel W. Auer, Special Agent in Charge, Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation Division, announced that defendant Jesus Mena, of Miami, was sentenced today. U.S. District Judge Patricia Seitz sentenced Mena to one year and one day of imprisonment, to be followed by one year of supervised release. Mena was also ordered to pay $391,714.28 in restitution to the IRS. Mena pled guilty on December 14, 2009 to filing a false U.S. Income Tax Return for an S Corporation, Form 1120S, for the tax year 2003, in violation of Title 26, United States Code, Section 7206(1).

According to court documents, Mena was the owner of Destiny Erectors, Inc., a construction company in Miami, FL, that provided labor for the installation of steel concrete reinforcing bars, also known as rebar. During the 2002 through 2004 tax years, Mena cashed a large number of checks for services that Destiny Erectors rendered. These amounts, however, were not included on the corporate tax returns of Destiny Erectors. Mena admitted that he used a portion of these funds to pay his personal living expenses and also used part of the money to pay his employees. Mena did not report the money cashed from the checks on his personal income tax returns.

Court documents also reflect that Mena reported gross receipts of $278,749 on the 2003 Form 1120S U.S. Income Tax Return for an S-Corporation, in the name of Destiny Erectors. The tax preparer who prepared the return reported gross receipts based upon the deposits made to the bank accounts of Destiny Erectors. Mena admitted that his corporate tax return did not include the cash that he received when he cashed checks at Hurricane Liquors instead of depositing the checks into the business bank account. The total checks cashed in 2003 was approximately $1.4 million.

Mr. Sloman commended the investigative efforts of the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation Division. This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Lois Foster-Steers.

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A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida at http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/fls. Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at http://www.flsd.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov.