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Press Release

Federal Jury Convicts San Antonio Businessman in Estimated $3.9 Million Tax Fraud Scheme

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Western District of Texas

A federal jury this morning convicted a former owner of San Antonio-based Gourmet Express, LLC, a skillet meals manufacturing and distributing business, for his role in an estimated $3.9 million tax fraud scheme announced United States Attorney Richard L. Durbin, Jr., and Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation Special Agent in Charge William Cotter. 

Jurors found 70–year-old Robert Warren Scully guilty of conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and three substantive wire fraud counts. 

Evidence presented in trial revealed that from April 2001 until July 2009, Scully and others conspired to defraud the Internal Revenue Service by hiding earned taxable income generated by his frozen food business.  Testimony revealed that Scully and others used intermediary companies in Thailand to provide shrimp and other ingredients at an inflated cost to Gourmet Express.  Scully and others used the proceeds generated as a result of the inflated costs for personal expenses and failed to disclose that income to the Internal Revenue Service.

Scully faces up to five years imprisonment for conspiracy to defraud the U.S. and up to 20 years imprisonment for each of the remaining charges.  Sentencing is scheduled for February 22, 2016, before United States District Judge David Ezra in San Antonio.

“Today’s conviction is a victory for the American taxpayer and the entrepreneurial spirit of this great country. Robert Scully should have known better than to try the old ‘shell game’ when it came to hiding income from his business partner and Uncle Sam,” said William Cotter, IRS Criminal Investigation’s Special Agent in Charge, San Antonio Field Office. “IRS Criminal Investigation Special Agents excel at peeling off the superficial shell of complex financial transactions and revealing the fraud hidden inside.”

The case resulted from an investigation by the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation.   Assistant United States Attorneys William R. Harris, Jay Hulings and Mary Nelda Valadez are prosecuting this case on behalf of the Government.

Updated February 4, 2016

Topic
Tax