U.S. Attorney Kenneth A. Polite announced that two owners of a Metairie business were sentenced today for willfully filing fraudulent 2011 individual income tax returns.
U.S. District Judge Jane Triche Milazzo sentenced both ROMMEL CORDOVA, 36, of Luling, and SAUL RAMIREZ, 44, of Kenner, to serve five years of probation and to pay a $10,000 fine. Each defendant has already paid restitution to the Internal Revenue Service.
According to court documents, CORDOVA and RAMIREZ owned and operated Skill Labor Provider, Inc. (Skill Labor) a Metairie labor services business. CORDOVA and RAMIREZ each owned 50 percent of the business and shared equally in its net income. During 2010 and 2011, Cordova and RAMIREZ used a Louisiana check cashing business to cash checks made payable to Skill Labor, cash or themselves and did not deposit these funds into Skill Labor’s bank accounts or report them as gross receipts on Skill Labor’s corporate income tax returns. Cordova and RAMIREZ caused Skill Labor to file fraudulent 2010, 2011 and 2012 corporate income tax returns which underreported the business’s gross receipts by more than $6 million. CORDOVA and RAMIREZ separately filed fraudulent 2010 through 2012 individual income tax returns, each underreporting their net income from Skill Labor by more than $866,000.
U.S. Attorney Polite commended special agents of the IRS–Criminal Investigation and Homeland Security Investigations, who conducted the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Hayden Brockett and Tax Division Trial Attorney Michael Hatzimichalis were in charge of the prosecution.