Albuquerque Businessman Sentenced to Prison for Federal Tax Evasion Conviction

ALBUQUERQUE – Acting U.S. Attorney James D. Tierney and Ismael Nevarez Jr., Special Agent in Charge of the Phoenix Field Office of IRS Criminal Investigation announced the sentencing of the former president and owner of Sneakerz, Inc., a corporation that operated “Sneakerz Sports Bar” in Albuquerque, N.M., on a federal tax evasion charge. James E. Coleman, Jr., 59, was sentenced this afternoon in federal court to 18 month of imprisonment to be followed by three years of supervised release. Coleman was also ordered to pay $1,045,939 in restitution to the IRS.

Coleman was charged in Nov. 2014, in a four-count indictment with tax evasion and subscribing false tax returns charges. Counts 1 and 2 charged Coleman with evading a total of $166,320 in federal corporate taxes in calendar years 2008 and 2009 by filing false tax returns that underrepresented his corporation’s taxable income. Count 1 charged Coleman with evading $90,661 in federal taxes by falsely claiming that his corporation had $621,064 in taxable income in calendar year 2008 despite knowing that the corporation had $886,128 in taxable income for that year. Count 2 charged him with evading $75,659 in federal taxes by falsely claiming that his corporation had $731,581 in taxable income in calendar year 2009 despite knowing that the corporation had $932,235 in taxable income for that year. Counts 3 and 4 charged Coleman with filing individual tax returns for calendar years 2008 and 2009 that falsely reported that Coleman received no dividend income and no business income during those two calendar years.

On June 23, 2016, Coleman pled guilty to Count 1 of the indictment and admitted evading a total of $1,045,939 in federal corporate and personal taxes between calendar years 2002 and 2009. In his plea agreement, Coleman acknowledged underrepresenting Sneakerz’s gross receipts to the IRS with the intention of evading his corporate tax liability. He also admitted falsely underrepresenting the income he derived from Sneakerz on his personal tax returns.

The Albuquerque office of IRS Criminal Investigation investigated the case, which was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeremy Peña.