FORMER MIAMI-DADE POLICE OFFICER
SENTENCED ON TAX EVASION CHARGES

Marcos Daniel Jiménez, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida; Eileen J. O’Connor, Assistant Attorney General for the Tax Division of the Department of Justice; and Brian J. Wimpling, Special Agent in Charge, Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation announced today the sentencing of former Miami-Dade Police Department police officer, William Bernard Oertwig, Jr., on tax evasion charges.

Oertwig was convicted of six counts of attempting to evade and defeat tax, in violation of Title 26, United States Code, Section 7201, for failing to claim any taxable income from 1996 through 2001.

Oertwig was sentenced to forty-one months’ imprisonment, followed by three years of supervised release, on each of the six counts, to be served concurrently. Oertwig was also ordered to pay a $50,000 fine. Oertwig has been in federal custody since the jury’s verdict on August 28, 2003.

Oertwig, a 28-year veteran of Miami-Dade Police Department and owner of Intercontinental Electronic Security Systems, a burglar alarm installation and monitoring company, filed false Forms W-4 with Miami-Dade County for each of the relevant years, stating he was exempt from any withholdings. Thereafter, he filed frivolous and false tax returns purporting to owe zero income, with the Internal Revenue Service for those six years. Additionally, Oertwig placed all of his assets in numerous abusive trusts, in an effort to conceal them from the Internal Revenue Service.

Mr. Jiménez commended the investigative efforts of the Internal Revenue Service and the Miami-Dade Police Department. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Anita J. Gay and Jeffrey A. Neiman, Trial Attorney, Tax Division of the Department of Justice.