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January 12, 2005 NAPA CPA PLEADS GUILTY TO SUBMITTING The United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California announced that Joel Momsen pled guilty on January 10, 2005, to submitting a false collection information statement (Form 433A) to the IRS. In pleading guilty, Joel Momsen admitted to the following: From 1991 through 1993, Mr. Momsen, a certified public accountant licensed in California, operated his own accounting business and incurred unpaid payroll tax liabilities. In October 1995, Momsen sold his residence located at 2507 Rollingwood Drive in Napa, California, to an unrelated third party in order to avoid its sale by the IRS to satisfy his unpaid tax liabilities. He and the third party entered into an agreement whereby the third party purchased the property from Momsen for $210,000. The third party agreed to lease the house back to Momsen for $1,600 a month and that at a later date Momsen would repurchase the property back for $215,000. The IRS received approximately $78,000 from the sale of the property, which was not sufficient to pay the taxes owed by Momsen. Momsen repurchased the house from the third party in December 1997 for $215,000 and put the title to the property in his mother’s name, Angelina Momsen, as his nominee. In February 2001, Momsen submitted a false Form 433-A to the Collection Division of the IRS under penalty of perjury in order to compromise his unpaid tax liabilities. Momsen failed to include his Napa residence as an asset. Momsen admitted he knew the collection information statement was false when he submitted it to the IRS. Momsen, of Napa, California, was indicted by a federal grand jury on May 11, 2004. He was charged with filing a false financial statement and evasion of tax payment. Under the plea agreement, Joel Momsen pled guilty to submitting a false financial statement. The sentencing of Momsen is scheduled for May 2, 2005, before Judge Marilyn H. Patel in San Francisco. The maximum statutory penalty for submitting a false collection statement to the IRS, in violation of 26 U.S.C. § 7206(1), is 3 years and a fine of 100,000. Momsen has agreed to pay the IRS $203,402 in restitution. However, the actual sentence will be advised by the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account a number of factors, and will be imposed at the discretion of the court. The prosecution is the result of an investigation by agents of the IRS. Jay R. Weill is the Assistant U.S. Attorney who prosecuted the case. A copy of this press release and related court filings may be found on the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s website at www.usdoj.gov/usao/can. Related court documents and information may be found on the U.S. District Court website at www.cand.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.psc.uscourts/gov. All press inquiries to the U.S. Attorney’s Office should be directed to Luke Macaulay at (415) 436-6757 or by email at Luke.Macaulay3@usdoj.gov. ### |
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