Canadian Sentenced to Five Years for Mail and Wire Fraud Conspiracy

RICHMOND, Va. – David Solomon, aka David Chityal, 39, of Budapest, Hungary, was sentenced today to 60 months in prison for his role in a conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud.

Solomon pleaded guilty on Nov. 30, 2015. According to court documents, Solomon admitted that he was incarcerated in a federal correctional facility with an individual identified as Conspirator 1, from approximately September 2009 to March 8, 2010.  Conspirator 1 previously was convicted in the Eastern District of Virginia of a $126 million fraud scheme, sentenced to 100 years in prison, and was ordered to pay approximately $128 million in restitution to victims of his fraud.  Conspirator 1 previously had conveyed certain assets to his Bankruptcy Estate for this restitution, including approximately $2 million in tax refunds.  When Solomon was released from prison and deported to his native Canada, he remained in touch with Conspirator 1, and together they engaged in a scheme to obtain these approximately $2 million in tax refunds so that Conspirator 1 could obtain a particular New York attorney for his criminal appeal.  Using this attorney, Solomon and Conspirator 1 changed the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) power of attorney forms so that the tax refund checks would be sent to the New York attorney, not Conspirator 1’s Bankruptcy Estate for his victims.  In September 2010, the IRS sent the $2 million tax refund checks to the New York attorney, who in turn sent the checks to an attorney in Canada.  The Canadian attorney flew to the federal correctional facility in which Conspirator 1 was incarcerated and Conspirator 1 endorsed the checks.  The Canadian attorney then flew with the negotiated checks to the Turks and Caicos Islands to deposit them in a trust account.  He was within hours of depositing the checks when the lawyer for Conspirator 1’s Bankruptcy Estate trustee learned what had happened and contacted the Canadian attorney.  The tax refunds were returned to the Bankruptcy Estate and paid to Conspirator 1’s fraud victims.

Dana J. Boente, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia; Adam S. Lee, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Richmond Field Office; Thomas M. Jankowski, Special Agent in Charge of IRS-Criminal Investigation’s (IRS-CI) Washington D.C. Field Office; David Bowers, Acting Inspector in Charge of the Washington Division of the United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS); and  J. Russell George, Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA), made the announcement after sentencing by U.S. District Judge Robert E. Payne.  Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jessica D. Aber and Thomas A. Garnett are prosecuting the case.

A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.  Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia or on PACER by searching for Case No. 3:12cr44.