Former Army Contracting Officials Charged with Conspiracy to Defraud the U.S. & Filing False Tax Returns and Ethics Forms

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Kenneth H. Nix and Velma I. Salinas-Nix, both of Boerne, Texas, were indicted by a federal grand jury in San Antonio on a multi-count indictment alleging tax fraud and false statements to the U.S. government, the Justice Department announced today. The Nixes were charged with one count of conspiring for the dual purpose of impeding the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in assessment and collection of income taxes and making false statements to the government, and four counts of filing false tax returns with the IRS. Velma Salinas-Nix also was charged with two counts of making false statements to the U.S. government by filing false financial disclosure ethics forms.

According to the indictment, the Nixes, both former high-level contracting officials with the U.S. Army, conspired between 2003 through 2010 to impede the IRS in the assessment and collection of income taxes and to make false statements to the federal government to conceal income that Kenneth Nix earned from a federal contractor to whom he awarded approximately $1.3 million in military contracts. To conceal this income, the Nixes were paid in cash, blank money orders and checks in another person’s name, among other things. They also structured cash deposits into their joint bank accounts, cashed money orders using false payor names, submitted false financial disclosure forms to the Army and filed false tax returns.

The conspiracy charge carries a maximum penalty of five years’ in prison and a $250,000 fine. The false tax return charges each carry a maximum penalty of three years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The false statement charges against Velma Salinas-Nix each carry a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

A trial date has not yet been set. An indictment is merely an allegation, and Kenneth Nix and Velma Salinas-Nix are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

Department of Justice Tax Division Trial Attorney Rebecca Perlmutter is prosecuting the case for the United States. This case was investigated by the Department of the Army-Criminal Investigation Division, IRS-Criminal Investigation, the FBI and the Defense Criminal Investigative Service.

More information about the Justice Department’s Tax Division and its enforcement efforts can be found at www.justice.gov/tax .