Baltimore, Maryland - U.S. District Judge Catherine C. Blake sentenced Ramon Anthony Jadra, age 47, of Westminster, Maryland, today to two years in prison, followed by two years of supervised release, for tax evasion in connection with a scheme to defraud his family-owned business of more than $900,000 over a four-year period. Jadra owned 54% of the company and other family members owned the remaining 46%. Jadra also paid restitution of $283,481, as required by his plea agreement.
The sentence was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein and Special Agent in Charge Thomas J. Kelly of the Internal Revenue Service - Criminal Investigation, Washington, D.C. Field Office.
“Jadra perpetuated a scheme that was driven by greed and self-interest," said Thomas J. Kelly, Special Agent in Charge, IRS Criminal Investigation, Washington D.C. Field Office. “He cheated both his own company by illegally diverting corporate funds to himself and the American taxpayer by evading paying taxes on the substantial income he earned from these actions. Today's sentencing should serve as a stark reminder to others that you can’t plunder a business and not expect to pay a price. In Jadra’s case, the price includes prison time."
According to his plea agreement, Jadra was the president and majority shareholder of a family-owned business located in Reisterstown, Maryland, that manufactures parts for the defense and aerospace industries. Beginning in 2008, Jadra fraudulently diverted company funds to himself.
Jadra carried out his scheme by causing checks to be written on the company’s bank account in the names of actual businesses with which Jadra or his company had dealings in the past, but which were not owed the amounts shown on the checks. These checks totaled $495,950 between 2008 and 2011. To avoid triggering the requirement that banks file a currency transaction report in connection with financial transactions involving more than $10,000 in cash, Jadra caused all of the checks to be issued in amounts of $9,500 or less.
As part of this scheme, Jadra established a check cashing account at a liquor store in Reisterstown, where he cashed fraudulently obtained checks totaling $368,350. Jadra then deposited $316,585 of these funds, again in amounts less than $10,000, in a checking account he had established in the name of DIA Solutions, a shell company that did not actually conduct any business.
In the spring of 2010, Jadra implemented a new aspect of his scheme. Jadra falsely advised his father and his company’s controller that DIA Solutions, an independent consulting firm, was entitled to receive 5% of the payments the company received on a contract worth over $6 million, that DIA Solutions had helped it obtain. Jadra instructed the company’s controller to issue a check to DIA Solutions for 5% of every payment that the company received on this contract. DIA Solutions had not in fact provided any goods or services, nor played any role in obtaining the contract in question. Once Jadra received these checks, totaling $313,218.02, he deposited them into the DIA Solutions bank account and then converted the money to his personal use.
Finally, in 2010 and 2011, Jadra implemented a third aspect of his fraudulent scheme. The manufacturing processes of Jadra’s company generated quantities of scrap metal, which it sold to two other companies. However, Jadra withheld this information from the company’s controller, who believed the company had to pay to have the scrap metal hauled away from the plant. This enabled Jadra to intercept checks from the two businesses that were tendered to Jadra’s company to pay for scrap metal it had sold, deposit the funds in the DIA Solutions bank account, and convert these funds to his own use. In all, Jadra derived $91,249.75 from this aspect of his scheme.
As a result of the schemes, from 2008 to 2011, Jadra fraudulently converted $900,418 from the company, and failed to pay $283,481 in taxes on this fraudulently obtained money. According to court documents Jadra’s reported income during that same time period was more than $4 million. Jadra used the majority of the embezzled funds for largely unsuccessful on-line stock trading. Other embezzled funds were used as follows: $50,000 down payment on a new 2012 BMW 535i costing $73,775.70; $14,512.58 for home renovations; $7,500 to buy a boat trailer; $31,295 to buy a watercraft; and a $15,929 down payment on a new Harley Davidson MC Screamin’ motorcycle costing $48,416.82.
United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein praised the IRS- Criminal Investigation for its work in the investigation and thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Jefferson M. Gray, who prosecuted the case.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
