CO-OWNER OF BENSON LIGHTING SENTENCED FOR TAX EVASION

Marcos Daniel Jiménez, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and Lorraine Johnson, Acting Special Agent in Charge, Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation, announced today that on April 15, 2003, Richard Cole, co-owner of Benson Lighting, located in South Dade, appeared before United States District Court Judge K. Michael Moore, and was sentenced to two years of probation for tax evasion. In addition, Cole was ordered to perform 1,000 hours of community service. He also was ordered to pay a $30,000 fine.

Cole, acting as President of Tri-Continental Enterprises, Inc., evaded income taxes owed by that corporation. The total tax loss in connection with the offense was $176,678.

In 1990, Cole established an account at Guardian Bank & Trust in the Cayman Islands. Cole also purchased Niric, Inc., a shell corporation, from Guardian. During the years 1990 through 1994, Cole deposited over $800,000 worth of Tri-Continental checks into the Niric account at Guardian. Cole caused Tri-Continental to deduct the amount of those checks on its returns as cost of goods sold, despite that being untrue.

Mr. Jiménez commended the investigative efforts of the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation. This case was prosecuted by Hugo Black III of the Economic Crimes Section.