LawFuel.com – 05 August, 2009 – Los Angeles – Yesterday afternoon, in United States District Court in Los Angeles, a North Hollywood man pleaded guilty to being involved in a conspiracy to defraud the United States with respect to claims, in violation of Title 18, United States Code section 286.
Sigbirt Adler, of North Hollywood, admitted being a part of a conspiracy that filed false claims with the Internal Revenue Service in a scheme in which gambling winnings and losses of the participants were falsified to obtain tax refunds. He faces a statutory maximum ten years in federal prison and fines totaling $250,000 when sentenced later this year by United States District Judge Christina A. Snyder.
According to his plea agreement, Adler, in conjunction with Anthony Del Rosario, Lee Del Rosario, Nelson Mauricio Ardon, and others conspired to defraud the government by filing false claims for income tax refunds. Adler solicited Ardon and the Del Rosario’s to provide their personal identifying information, telling them that the information would be used to prepare and file false income tax returns with the Internal Revenue Service, claiming fictitious gambling winnings on their returns. The participant’s information was used to prepare fictitious Forms W-2G’s, reporting false gambling winnings and withholding amounts. Subsequently, false returns were filed by the co-conspirators with the IRS utilizing the falsified Forms W-2G’s and tax refunds were obtained by Ardon and both Anthony Del Rosario and Lee Del Rosario.
Adler’s plea agreement details that, in 2006, he solicited Anthony Del Rosario for his personal identifying information and, in conjunction with others, caused a false return to be filed with the IRS claiming that Anthony Del Rosario had received over $265,000 in gambling winnings and had paid $66,451 in federal taxes. As a result of the false information contained on the return, the IRS issued a refund to Anthony Del Rosario in the amount of $66,451.
In related cases, Anthony Del Rosario was previously sentenced to 60 months probation and ordered to pay restitution of $66,451 after pleading guilty to filing a false claim with the IRS. Lee Del Rosario was sentenced to 36 months probation and ordered to pay restitution of $57,417 subsequent his pleading guilty to submitting a false document to the IRS. Nelson Ardon is scheduled for trial before United States Magistrate Judge Rosalyn Chapman on charges he submitted a false document to the IRS later this year.
An indictment contains allegations that a defendant has committed a crime. Every defendant is presumed to be innocent until proven guilty in court.
Judge Snyder ordered Adler to appear for sentencing on December 14, 2009.
The investigation of Adler, Ardon, Anthony Del Rosario, and Lee Del Rosario was conducted by IRS – Criminal Investigation’s Los Angeles Field Office in cooperation with the United States Attorney’s office for the Central District of California.
