Contact: Jim Cross
(316) 269-6481

Feb. 9, 2005

FLORIDA MAN TO SPEND 21 MONTHS IN FEDERAL TAX CASE INVOLVING EMBEZZLEMENT FROM A KANSAS MOSQUE

KANSAS CITY, KAN. – United States Attorney Eric Melgren announced that Farooq A. Essa, 56, currently of Orange Point, Fla., has been sentenced to 21 months in federal prison without parole on two counts of filing fraudulent income tax returns with the Internal Revenue Service.

Essa was sentenced Feb.7, 2005, by U.S. District Judge Carlos Murguia in Kansas City, Kan. He was convicted Nov. 18, 2004, at the end of a three-day trial. According to testimony at trial, Essa embezzled more than $230,000 from his mosque, the Ismail Community jamatkhana located, at the time, in his home in Overland Park but which is now located in Olathe, Kan. The embezzlement resulted in a tax loss of $69,649. The Ismaili Muslim Community is a sect of the Shia branch of Islam whose spiritual leader is Prince Aga Kahn, believed by his followers to be the closest living relative of the prophet Mohammed.

The jury convicted ESSA on one count of reporting to the IRS on Feb. 28, 2000, that in tax year 1999 his total income was $76, 334, when in fact he received an additional $112,814 that he did not report; and one count of reporting to the IRS on Feb. 2, 2001, that in the 2000 tax year his total income was $47,734, when in fact he received an additional $118,573 that he did not report.

"The prosecution of individuals who seek to profit by fraudulently filing income tax returns provides a deterrent effect to potential violators of tax laws," said Michael Yasofsky, Jr., Special Agent in Charge of IRS Criminal Investigation. "We want the honest taxpaying citizens to know that IRS is focused on combating tax fraud."

Melgren commended the work of Special Agent Robert Jackson of the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation Division. Assistant U.S. Attorney Marietta Parker prosecuted the case.

##