FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

March 14, 2001

Norma Estimbo Lacy
Public Affairs Specialist
Phone: 713/567-9388 Fax: 713/718-3389
E-Mail: usatty.txs@usdoj.gov

WESTLIGHT FINANCIAL STRATEGIES OWNER
INDICTED FOR FRAUDULENT INCOME TAX REFUND SCHEME

Albert A. Balboni, Assistant U. S. Attorney
Phone: 713/567-9726

(Houston) Mervyn M. Mosbacker, United States Attorney for the Southern District of
Texas, announced today that Vernard Wrotten was indicted by a federal grand jury for conspiracy to defraud the Internal Revenue Service and for aiding in the filing of false income tax returns. The indictment alleges that Wrotten was the creator and owner of Westlight Financial Strategies, a company that held itself out as a financial services company. Wrotten was charged with thirty-three counts of aiding and assisting the filing of false income tax returns and one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States.

Indicted with Wrotten were two former employees of Westlight Financial, Randolph Corbitt and Doyle Smart. Corbitt, a financial planner at Westlight, was charged with conspiracy and twenty-two counts of aiding and assisting the filing of false income tax returns. Smart, a lawyer and financial planner at Westlight, was charged with conspiracy and twenty-one counts of aiding and assisting the filing of false income tax returns. The indictment alleges that Wrotten, Corbitt, and Smart conspired to aid the filing of approximately 530 false income tax returns for the years 1994 through 1996.

If convicted, Wrotten, Corbitt, and Smart each face a possible sentence of five years imprisonment, three years supervised release, and a fine of $250,000. This case was investigated by Special Agents of the Internal Revenue Service and is being prosecuted by the United States Attorney's Office.


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