12 January 2005 – LAWFUEL – The Law News Network – The United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California announced that Joel Momsen pled guilty on January 10, 2005, to submitting a false
collection information statement (Form 433A) to the IRS.
In pleading guilty, Joel Momsen admitted to the following:
From 1991 through 1993, Mr. Momsen, a certified public accountant licensed in California, operated his own accounting business and incurred unpaid payroll tax
liabilities. In October 1995, Momsen sold his residence located at 2507
Rollingwood Drive in Napa, California, to an unrelated third party in order to
avoid its sale by the IRS to satisfy his unpaid tax liabilities. He and the third
party entered into an agreement whereby the third party purchased the property from
Momsen for $210,000. The third party agreed to lease the house back to
$1,600 a month and that at a later date Momsen would repurchase the property back
for $215,000. The IRS received approximately $78,000 from the sale of the
property, which was not sufficient to pay the taxes owed by Momsen.
Momsen repurchased the house from the third party in December 1997 for $215,000 and put the title to the property in his mother’s name, Angelina Momsen, as his
nominee.
In February 2001, Momsen submitted a false Form 433-A to the Collection Division of
the IRS under penalty of perjury in order to compromise his unpaid tax liabilities.
Momsen failed to include his Napa residence as an asset. Momsen admitted he knew
the collection information statement was false when he submitted it to the IRS.
Momsen, of Napa, California, was indicted by a federal grand jury on May 11, 2004.
He was charged with filing a false financial statement and evasion of tax payment.
Under the plea agreement, Joel Momsen pled guilty to submitting a false financial
statement.
The sentencing of Momsen is scheduled for May 2, 2005, before Judge Marilyn H.
Patel in San Francisco. The maximum statutory penalty for submitting a false
collection statement to the IRS, in violation of 26 U.S.C. § 7206(1), is 3 years
and a fine of 100,000. Momsen has agreed to pay the IRS $203,402 in restitution.
However, the actual sentence will be advised by the Federal Sentencing Guidelines,
which take into account a number of factors, and will be imposed at the discretion
of the court.
The prosecution is the result of an investigation by agents of the IRS. Jay R.
Weill is the Assistant U.S. Attorney who prosecuted the case.
