Second Member of Conspiracy Sentenced in Employment Tax Scheme

ROANOKE, VIRGINIA – United States Attorney John P. Fishwick Jr. announced today the sentencing of a second man involved in a conspiracy that defrauded the United States out of a half million dollars of employment taxes over a five year time period. 

Today in District Court, Markera Galustyants, of Miami, Florida, who previously pled guilty to one count of conspiring to defraud the United States, was sentenced to 14 months in federal prison and ordered to pay a fine of $5,000. A second man, Vladimir Maglnik, 52, of Williamsburg, Va., was previously was previously sentenced to 20 months in federal prison and ordered to pay a fine of $7,500.

“These men lined their pockets off the hard work of others and by stealing from the American taxpayer,” United States Attorney Fishwick said today. “We will continue to work with our partners in law enforcement to ensure the validity of our tax system and those who pay into it.”                                                                                                         

According to evidence presented at previous hearings by Assistant United States Attorney C. Patrick Hogeboom, from at least 2002 continuing through 2007, Galustyants and Maglnik owned North American Management (NAM), a company that contracted labor service contracts with hotels, primarily in Florida, Virginia and Louisiana. NAM agreed to provide temporary employees to perform housekeeping services, would be responsible for hiring and paying all temporary workers as well as complying with all federal regulations, including the deduction and payment of employment taxes from the temporary workers’ wages. The hotels were also assured that the temporary workers held legitimate work permits and were eligible to work in the United States.

However, according to evidence presented in court, NAM routinely violated the terms of the contract and failed to pay employment taxes to the United States Treasury on any of the temporary works employed by NAM. All told, the conspirators pocketed $3,082,097 in unpaid employment taxes.

The investigation of the case was conducted by U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations, the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigations, the Department of Labor and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.  Assistant United States Attorney C. Patrick Hogeboom III prosecuted the case for the United States.