TWO CHARGED WITH CONSPIRACY AND FILING FALSE TAX RETURNS IN A CORPORATE SCHEME BASED IN SOUTH FLORIDA
Elmo Antonio George and Nasheba Necia Hunte were indicted by a federal grand jury in the Southern District of Florida on charges of conspiring to defraud the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and with filing false tax returns for 2005 and 2006 which claimed false refunds totaling more than $1.2 million, the Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced today.
According to the indictment, between January 2003 and at least October 2008, George and Hunte conspired to defraud the IRS by, among other acts, incorporating and using Winco Holdings, Inc. (“Winco”), a corporation that had no employees and paid no money to employees for wages and by preparing and filing false individual, employment and corporate tax returns, as well as false promissory notes with the IRS. According to the indictment, George and Hunte also transferred ownership of property to each other and to corporate entities to conceal the proceeds of their fraud.
If convicted, George and Hunte each face a maximum of 5 years in prison for the conspiracy charge and a maximum of 3 years in prison for each false tax return charge, for a total of 11 years’ imprisonment. Each defendant also faces a maximum of $750,000 in fines.
An indictment merely alleges that a crime has been committed, and a defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
This case was investigated by the IRS-Criminal Investigation and is being prosecuted by Tax Division Trial Attorneys Rebecca Perlmutter and Charles Edgar.
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.
