The U.S. Attorney in Tampa announced the indictment of four Tampa men for alleged money laundering in relation to an illegal alien smuggling organization to conceal the origins of the money. The investigation, coined Operation “Brazilian Express,” reportedly took over a year to conclude.

According to federal prosecutors and law enforcement, the illegal alien-smuggling scheme was headed by Tampa resident Edson Veiga and smuggled illegal Brazilian aliens over the Mexican border and into the United States. Veiga previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to alien smuggling and is serving a sentence of 33 months in federal prison. His cooperation with federal authorities appears to have been key to the investigation.

According to court document, the organization charged the aliens between $8,000 and $10,000 and used the money to pay individuals at various stages of the operation. Veiga reportedly made approximately $1,500 for each successfully smuggled alien. Authorities estimate that the group successfully smuggled about 100 illegal aliens into the country. (more…)

Carel A. “Chad” Prater of Sarasota was found guilty of a vareity of government fraud-related charges, including corrupt interference with the federal tax laws, aiding and assisting the filing of a false tax return, failure to file a tax return, criminal contempt, structuring transactions to avoid reporting requirements and making false declarations before a grand jury this week.

Prater served as his own attorney during his trial, which is certainly allowed but never advised due to the nuances of criminal and constitutional law as well as the detailed rules which govern trial procedure.

In his own defense, he claimed that income earned in the United States is generally not taxable. According to law enforcement, Prater perpetrated a scheme by which he purported to help his clients “legally” avoid paying income taxes. He claimed he could legally remove his clients from the federal tax system. (more…)

Barbara Branks, owner of La Gringa Professional Immigration Services in Clearwater, was sentenced this week to nearly five years in federal prison for filing false asylum applications with United States customs agencies. She was also ordered to forfeit about $816,000 in profits from the fraudulent filings.

Branks was indicted last September and pleaded guilty in November to filing 274 fraudulent asylum petitions. After a pre-sentence investigation, Branks appeared for sentencing. The judge sentenced her to four years and nine months in federal prison. (more…)

Fort Myers real estate agent Thomas Daugherty pleaded guilty earlier this month to federal tax evasion charges in U.S. District Court in Fort Myers.

Prosecutors alleged that Daugherty, who handled commercial real estate transactions, reported a total of $3,366,733 in income for the years 1998 through 2005. He reported $2,020,655 in income for the years 2006 and 2007. However, Daugherty failed to pay $1,648,227 in taxes for the years 1998 through 2005.

Law enforcement further alleged, and Daugherty admitted, that he maintained a lifestyle of hoarding and spending cash in order to hide his assets from the IRS during that time. He cashed his real estate commission checks or purchased cashier’s checks made out to himself, rather than depositing them into his bank account. From November 2002 through April 2008, Daugherty purchased more than 210 cashier’s checks totaling more than $2,190,000 and made payable to himself while maintaining nominal or negative bank account balances.

The failure to pay income tax alone would probably not have concerned federal authorities to quite the extent that Daugherty’s evasion tactics apparently did. Daughtery will now be the subject of a pre-sentence investigation and faces a maximum penalty of five years in federal prison.

James Otto Price, III, of Jacksonville was sentenced this month to 30 months in federal prison for willfully preparing false tax returns. The court also entered a money judgment against Price in the amount of $216,454.00, according to the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Florida.

According to the Internal Revenue Service, Price has the dubious honor of being the first tax preparer in the country to be found guilty and sentenced for committing tax fraud involving the First-Time Homebuyer Credit. (more…)

The former president of a Tampa mortgage company and his wife were sentenced to federal prison this week for defrauding banks and the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development for a combined $79 million. According to court documents, Corey and Sandi Brower ran GreatStone Mortgage and were involved in a conspiracy to defraud from 1999 to 2001.

According to court documents, in late 1998 or early 1999, GreatStone officers including the Browers devised a scheme to ease some cash flow problems by defrauding the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and several financial institutions. Apparently, the company obtained funds by submitting loan documents to banks for mortgages which had already been funded with money obtained from other banks.

According to a former employee who also pleaded guilty to taking part in the plan, they would then change the date on a copy of the note and forge a signature of the mortgagee. The documents would then become part of the pyramid scheme in which GreatStone used money from fraudulent mortgages to repay earlier loans fraudulently obtained. (more…)

Barbara Branks, the owner of a Clearwater immigration services business, was indicted last week on federal charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States. Federal prosecutors in Tampa allege she conspired to prepare fraudulent applications for asylum and forged documents supporting the applications.

Branks owns and operates La Gringa Professional Immigration Services in Clearwater. The indictment alleges that she prepared false applications and documents in almost 20 cases, from 2006 to 2009. (more…)

A federal judge in Orlando sentenced tax preparer Jean Marie Boursiquot to two and a half years in federal prison for conspiracy to defraud the Internal Revenue Service earlier this month. The case was prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Florida, the district that also includes the Tampa Bay area.

Boursiquot pleaded guilty to the charges back in May. In addition to prison time, Boursiquot will also be required to pay $149,456.59 in restitution to the United States government.

According to court documents, Boursiquot a tax preparation company and prepared tax returns for Haitian immigrants. Boursiquot apparently forged his clients’ signatures on the tax returns and had the IRS mail him the refund checks directly. He then forged the clients’ endorsements on the checks and deposited the checks into his business account. He passed along some of the funds due back to his clients but kept a portion for himself. (more…)

Three members of a Tampa Bay-area family have been indicted by a federal grand jury on Medicare fraud charges. The indictment alleges that Ben, Gregory and Tracey Bane used their businesses to defraud Medicare out of over $5 million.

Federal prosecutors accuse Ben Bane of Plant City and his son and daughter-in-law, Gregory and Tracey Bane of Valrico, of conspiring to submit false bills to Medicare through Bane Medical Services, their oxygen and medical equipment company as well as another company called Oxygen Respiratory Therapy Inc.

The Banes are accused of forging doctors’ signatures, falsifying test results to show that patients qualified for Medicare reimbursement for oxygen therapy and other services and submitting claims to Medicare for unnecessary or unperformed services. (more…)

For over 20 months, Naushad Shahabuddin exchanged food stamps for cash at the Clearwater Quick Check Food Mart. Shahabuddin gave customers cash for less than the face value of the food stamps and then kept the difference for himself. He made an illegal profit of about $130,000. His “customers” walked away with about $260,000 in cash instead of food products.

The U.S. Secret Service investigated and Shahabuddin was ultimately charged with defrauding the government. He pleaded guilty this spring.

Unlike a similar case in St. Petersburg which garnered its defendant a sentence of house arrest, a federal judge this week sentenced Shahabuddin to 21 months in prison for his crimes. He is also required to repay the government its money.

Although this defendant received a higher sentence than the defendant in the St. Pete food stamp fraud case, the 21-month sentence was within the range discussed by prosecutors and defense attorneys. Shahabuddin is also required to pay the government the entire $390,000 but he will receive credit for any amounts paid back by his 510 food stamp “customers”.

The difference in sentences for seemingly similar crimes can be the result of a variety of reasons. It could be attributable to different criminal histories on the part of the defendants, different levels of cooperation with the investigation, different levels of sophistication of the criminal enterprise and more. The difference can also hinge to some extent on intangibles such as the identity of the judge and the attorneys involved in the case.