A Miami-Dade County resident was sentenced to 48 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, and was ordered to pay a money judgment in the amount of $165,000 and to forfeit $69,900.22 and a BMW seized during the investigation.
Wifredo A. Ferrer, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Kelly R. Jackson, Special Agent in Charge, Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), Jeff Key, Chief, Opa-locka Police Department, and J.D. Patterson Jr., Director, Miami-Dade Police Department (MDPD), made the announcement.
Geovanys Guevara, 41, of Hialeah, was previously convicted by a federal jury of three counts of causing the filing of false reports of cash payments over $10,000 received in a trade or business, specifically Form 8300, with the Treasury Department, for the purpose of evading reporting these payments to the Treasury Department, in violation of Title 31, United States Code, Sections 5324(b)(2) and (d)(2).
As shown at trial and in court documents, Guevara purchased three cars in the names of another individual at a Miami-Dade car dealership: a Ferrari involving cash in the amount of $95,000, a Lamborghini involving cash in the amount of $20,000, and a Rolls Royce involving cash in the amount of $50,000. Because Guevara used a straw buyer to purchase the vehicles, his actions caused the car dealership to file a Form 8300 for each purchase containing material omissions and misstatements of fact concerning the true identity of the person from whom the cash was received. Federal law requires every non-financial trade and business to file a Form 8300 with the Treasury Department to report cash payments received over $10,000 during a transaction or two or more related transactions.
Mr. Ferrer commended the investigative efforts of the South Florida Financial Crimes Strike Force, with special commendation to IRS-CI, the Opa-locka Police Department, and the MDPD. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Elijah A. Levitt and Timothy Abraham.
A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida at www.usdoj.gov/usao/fls. Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
