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发帖数: 29846 | 1 Kulwant Lasher, 54, an owner of Lasher Brothers Trucking Company Inc., based
in Los Banos, CA, has been sentenced to four years and nine months in
prison to be followed by three years of supervised release for conspiring to
bribe an IRS Revenue Officer and failing to pay employee withholding and
payroll (FICA) taxes. His brother, Tarlochan Lasher, 56, also an owner of
Lasher Brothers Trucking Company Inc., was sentenced to one year in prison
to be followed by three years of supervised release for conspiring to
failing to pay employee withholding and payroll taxes. They were also
ordered to pay no less than $739,767 in restitution, with the final amount
to be determined by the IRS.
"Those who seek to bribe officers of the Internal Revenue Service, be warned
the fullest extent of the law," said J. Russell George, the Treasury
Inspector General for Tax Administration.
At sentencing, Chief U.S. District Judge Anthony W. Ishii noted that this
was a serious case involving "a large amount of money and a lifestyle that
needs to change."
Kulwant Lasher and Tarlochan Lasher pleaded guilty in October 2010 and
admitted that as corporate officers and owners of Lasher Brothers Trucking
Company Inc., they conspired to fail to account for and pay employee
withholding and FICA taxes for tax years 2003 through 2007. The government
also presented evidence at sentencing that the brothers diverted funds that
could have been applied to the payment of employee withholding and FICA
taxes to cover USA Express Cab, Kulwant Lasher's taxicab business in San
Jose, and personal expenses, including life insurance, golf club memberships
, luxury vehicles, and law school tuition for one of the brother's children.
Kulwant Lasher also admitted that he had engaged in a scheme to bribe an IRS
Revenue Officer to abate Lasher Brothers Trucking Company's $2.4 million
tax liability. Kulwant Lasher admitted that he had offered to pay an
undercover IRS Revenue Officer $600,000 in cash to eliminate the Lasher
Brothers Trucking Company's $2.4 million tax liability. In meetings at a
restaurant and gas station, Kulwant Lasher gave the Revenue Officer $56,500
in cash, handed over his 2003 BMW 745L, and gave him a quitclaim deed for
his residence in Los Banos. Immediately, after delivering his BMW to the
Revenue Officer, Kulwant Lasher called a BMW dealership in Fresno and asked
to be picked up, because he wanted to buy a new BMW. When the dealership
asked about a $747,000 tax lien on his credit record, Kulwant Lasher,
knowing of his tax liability to the IRS, told the salesman that he had
already paid it. Kulwant Lasher then purchased a new 745 BMW for
approximately $95,000.
According to TIGTA, the tax liability that Kulwant Lasher attempted to abate
by bribing a Revenue Officer was the largest in the country involving the
bribery of a Revenue Officer.
Source: Department of Justice |
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