FORMER U.S. TREASURER SENTENCED

     WASHINGTON, D.C.--Catalina Vasquez Villalpando, the former
Treasurer of the United States, today was sentenced by the U.S.
District Judge Thomas F. Hogan of U.S. Court in Washington, to four
months in prison, three years of supervised release (four months of
which is to be home detention), 200 hours of community service and
a $150 special assessment for tax evasion.  
     She served as Treasurer from 1989 to 1992.
     Villalpando previously had pleaded guilty to a two-count
information filed by the Fraud and Public Integrity Sections of the
Criminal Division charging her with conspiracy to violate the false
statement statute and tax evasion. The charges stated that
Villalpando had conspired to conceal from the Treasury Department,
the Office of Government Ethics, the Senate Finance Committee and
the U.S. Senate certain facts that were capable of influencing the
actions of those agencies concerning Villalpando's fitness for the
position of Treasurer and her fitness to hold that position.  
     These facts included her receipt in 1989 and 1990 of
substantial amounts of funds and benefits for her personal use from
Communications International Inc., a Georgia-based
telecommunications company of which Villalpando was a senior vice
president, director, and shareholder in 1989; and her receipt in
1989 of compensation from CII, in addition to her CII salary, that
she concealed from the Treasury Department, OGE, and the Senate
Finance Committee.  
     The information also charged Villalpando with tax evasion for
failing to report $167,901 in taxable income, on which she owed
$47,013 in additional federal income tax, for calendar year 1989.
     Today's sentence also pertained to a one-count information,
filed against Villalpando by the Office of Independent Counsel for
certain matters pertaining to the Department of Housing and Urban
Development.  The OIC information, which was consolidated with the
Criminal Division's information for sentencing, charged Villalpando
with obstruction of justice in connection with her testimony before
a federal grand jury in the District of Columbia.  In sentencing
Villalpando, Judge Hogan granted a motion by the OIC for a downward
departure under section 5K1.1 of the Sentencing Guidelines, which
the OIC had agreed to file in its plea agreement with Villalpando,
but granted a two-level downward departure.
     The prosecution of this case was handled by Fraud Section
senior litigation counsel Jonathan J. Rusch, Public Integrity
section senior trial attorney Faye S. Ehrenstamm, and Fraud Section
trial attorneys David H. Katz and James J. Nixon.