FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACTAUSA VICKIE E. LEDUC or MARCIA MURPHY at 410-209-4885

MAY 2, 2007

WASHINGTON D.C. METRO AREA DOCTOR INDICTED FOR EVADING OVER $360,000 IN TAXES

Allegedly Failed to Report Over $1 Million in Income

Greenbelt, Maryland - A federal grand jury has indicted Ndubuisi Joseph Okafor, M.D., age 49, of Mitchellville, Maryland on charges of tax evasion and filing a false federal tax return, announced United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein. The indictment was returned on April 18, 2007. Dr. Okafor is scheduled to have his initial appearance and arraignment at 11:30 a.m. on May 3, 2007 in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt.

According to the 13-count indictment, Dr. Okafor operated a medical practice named “The Okafor Group,” which provided primary care medicine in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area. The indictment alleges that from 1997 through 2005, Dr. Okafor evaded his taxes by reporting false information to the Internal Revenue Service and tax preparers regarding his personal income and the gross receipts from his medical practice; establishing sham corporations in the Bahamas to create false expenses and disguise personal income; and diverting money from his medical practice by writing checks from the corporate bank account for personal expenses. Specifically, Dr. Okafor is alleged to have substantially under-reported his income and taxes due, stating that his total income for the tax years 1999 through 2002 was $278,926 with tax due of $51,580, when in fact, Dr. Okafor knew that his total income for those years totaled $1,335,597, with tax due of $413,234. This resulted in Dr. Okafor allegedly evading $361,654 in personal income taxes during those four years. Dr. Okafor is also charged with aiding and abetting the filing of false returns by his medical corporation and the Bahamian corporations through which he diverted income.

Okafor faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison on each of the four counts of tax evasion, and three years on each of the nine counts of filing a false tax return.

An indictment is not a finding of guilt. An individual charged by indictment is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty at some later criminal proceedings.

United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein praised the investigative work performed by the Internal Revenue Service - Criminal Investigation, Federal Bureau of Investigation and Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General. Mr. Rosenstein thanked Assistant U.S. Attorneys Sandra Wilkinson and Stacy Dawson Belf, who are prosecuting the case.