RICHMOND, Va. - Samad Jafari, 55, of Henrico, Va., was sentenced to 30 months in prison for a tax evasion scheme involving his used car sales business known as United Import Company, Ltd. (United Import), and was ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $668,791. In addition, on March 25, 2013, United Import was ordered to pay forfeiture in the amount of $735,225 as a result of its guilty plea to structuring cash deposits to prevent banking institutions from reporting currency transactions to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
Neil H. MacBride, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia; and Thomas J. Kelly, Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation’s Washington, D.C., Field Office, made the announcement after the sentencing by United States District Judge Henry E. Hudson.
Jafari and United Import pled guilty on March 25, 2013. In a statement of facts filed with both plea agreements, Jafari admitted he was the owner and operator of United Import, which has been in business since 1999. Jafari was the sole signatory and owner of a business account in the name of United Import. He acknowledged that beginning in 2006, Jafari developed a scheme to receive cash payments for the financing of used cars, and subsequently structured cash deposits into the business account, as well as other personal bank accounts. Jafari also created a second set of figures to provide to his accountant in preparing his 2006 and 2007 Federal Income Tax returns, which significantly understated the amount of cash payments he received for vehicle financing. The total tax loss identified in the investigation was in excess of $698,000.
In addition, Jafari acknowledged that, acting as President of United Import, he structured or caused to be structured, over $735,000 in cash deposits during a 24-month time period in an effort to prevent banking institutions from filing a “Currency Transaction Report" or CTR. Banks are required to file CTRs under the Bank Secrecy Act for cash transaction in excess of $10,000, and the forms are used to detect criminal activity, including tax evasion. To avoid the reporting requirement, which had the potential to alert the authorities to the actual amount of cash he had received, Jafari broke deposits down into multiple transactions in amounts below $10,000, and used both business and personal accounts.
This case was investigated by the Internal Revenue Service - Criminal Investigation. Assistant United States Attorney David T. Maguire prosecuted the case on behalf of the United States.
A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia at http://www.justice.gov/usao/vae. Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia at http://www.vaed.uscourts.gov or on https://pcl.uscourts.gov.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
