Suite 2001
                                                            211 West Fort Street
                                                            Detroit, Michigan 48226-3277

For Immediate Release:
Contact: Gina Balaya (313) 226-9758

April 6, 2004
 

United State Attorney, Jeffrey Collins, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Interim Special Agent-in-Charge, Michael Hodzen, and Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigations, Special Agent-in-Charge, Mark Kroczynski, announced that Mark Arhebamen, 51, formerly of Auburn Hills and West Bloomfield, Michigan, was sentenced to 152 months imprisonment, followed by four years of supervised release. It was also recommended that at the conclusion of his sentence, that Mr. Arhebamen be deported from the United States. Mr. Arhebamen was convicted on December 10, 2003, after a seven-day trial in federal court and two and a half hours of deliberating by the jury, of one count of failing to appear for sentencing, one count of falsely claiming United States citizenship, one count of obstruction, two counts of making false statements, and impending the due administration of justice. This sentence was handed down by United States District Court Chief Judge Lawrence P. Zatkoff.

In 1999, Mr. Arhebamen, known as McMaine Ogeorgia to the IRS Criminal Investigation, was indicted on 22 felony counts of willfully aiding and assisting in the preparation of false tax returns, and defrauding the IRS of over $77,000. Diligent work by the United States Probation Department and ICE revealed that McMaine Ogeorgia was instead Mr. Arhebamen a citizen of Nigeria born on March 21, 1953. Mr. Arhebamen had successfully posed as a United States Citizen for more than 16 years during which he operated a tax preparation service.

On February 23, 2001, Mr. Arhebamen pled guilty to one count aiding and assisting in preparation of false tax returns. He was released on bond. He failed to appear for sentencing in June 2001, at which time an arrest warrant was issued. Mr. Arhebamen was apprehended in Arizona by the U.S. Marshals and later returned to Detroit at which point he was sentenced by the court to a 21 month prison term.

During these court proceedings before United States District Judge Gerald E. Rosen, Mr. Arhebamen stated that he was a citizen of the United States. Later, during meetings with his probation officer, Mr. Arhebamen knowingly made false statements about his citizenship. Mr. Arhebamen represented himself as McMaine Ogeorgia, a United States Citizen born in Albany, Georgia to his probation officer as well as others.

Trial attorneys, Kenneth Vert and Jeffrey McLellan, Department of Justice Tax Division, Washington, DC, prosecuted the case.