Commercial Real Estate Broker Pleads Guilty to Obstructing the IRS

LOS ANGELES – A San Gabriel Valley man and commercial real estate broker has pleaded guilty to a years-long pattern of obstructing the IRS from collecting taxes he owed, leading that agency to collect $770 in tax liabilities when he earned approximately $1 million from his employment during that time, the Justice Department announced today.

Gabriel David Guerrero, of Pasadena, pleaded guilty on Monday to one count of corruptly obstructing or impeding, or endeavoring to obstruct or impede, the due administration of the Internal Revenue Code. Guerrero is free on $50,000 bond.

According to his plea agreement, Guerrero is a commercial real estate broker who for years did not file timely federal individual income tax returns, specifically for the years 1998, 1999, and 2001 through 2005. He later owed tax liabilities for the years 2012 and 2013.

After the IRS assessed taxes against Guerrero and attempted to collect them him via the sending of dozens of notices, Guerrero took steps to conceal his income and assets from the IRS. For example, he made extensive use of cash and cashier’s checks; submitted a false form to the IRS that significantly understated his income; and used a nominee bank account to deposit income.

Despite the IRS’s issuance of dozens of levies to bank accounts and brokers with whom Guerrero worked throughout the collection action from October 2013 to November 2017, the IRS obtained only $770 towards Guerrero’s tax liabilities for 1998, 1999, 2001 through 2005, 2012, and 2013 despite Guerrero earning approximately $1 million in income from his work as a commercial real estate broker over that same time frame.

United States District Judge Percy Anderson scheduled a September 15 sentencing hearing, at which time Guerrero will face a statutory maximum sentence of three years in federal prison.

IRS Criminal Investigation is investigating this matter.

Assistant United States Attorney Steven M. Arkow of the Major Frauds Section and Justice Department Trial Attorneys Robert Kemins and Christopher Gerace of the Tax Division are prosecuting this case.