FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE	CONTACT: Lauren Horwood
January 30, 2012	PHONE: (916) 554-2706
www.usdoj.gov/usao/cae	usacae.edcapress@usdoj.gov
Docket #: 1:09-cr-142-LJO

            FRESNO, Calif. — United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced that Michael S. Ioane, 50, of Atwater, was sentenced today by United States District Judge Lawrence J. O’Neill to nine years in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release for a tax fraud conspiracy.

            In October 2011, after a one-week trial, a federal jury found Ioane guilty for conspiring to defraud the United States and four counts of presenting fictitious documents to the United States.

            According to the evidence presented at trial, Ioane, who operated under the name Acacia Corporate Management and First Amendment Publishers, among others, promoted sham or abusive trusts that purported to allow people to put their assets and income into trusts that would shield them from the Internal Revenue Service. When the Internal Revenue Service disallowed various trusts set up by Ioane, he would instruct co-defendant Vincent Steven Booth to set up new trusts, file false liens against his (Booth’s) properties and present bogus “Bills of Exchange” to the IRS that Ioane said constituted full payment of Booth’s tax debt.

            At sentencing, Judge O’Neill noted that Ioane is “cagey, conniving, smart, wily … he’s a sophisticated cheat … he is a con.” O’Neill went on to state that Ioane has convinced himself that he has done nothing wrong, and “regrets being caught and not what he’s done.” Judge O’Neill ordered Ioane taken into custody.
            Booth pleaded guilty in September 2010 and is scheduled to be sentenced on February 27, 2012. He is currently working to pay more than $1.3 million in back taxes that are owed to the IRS.

            This case was the result of an investigation conducted by the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Mark E. Cullers and Michele L. Thielhorn prosecuted the case.

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