Fish plant owner sentenced in tax fraud casePublished on March 11th, 2010 By BRISTOL BAY TIMES STAFF
Virginia Ferrari, 52, of Rio Vista, Calif., was sentenced March 2 in a case that stems from a $1.1 million penalty assessed by the IRS on her company, Woodbine Alaska Fish Co., which had operated a fish plant in Egegik. She and Guy Ferrari had been indicted Sept. 3, 2008, on charges that in 2002, 2004, and 2005, they submitted to the IRS offers to compromise their tax liability for small amounts of money ($10,000 to $19,000), claiming they lacked the financial resources to pay the $44,140 assessed following an examination of their 1993 and 1994 individual income taxes, plus penalties and interest, a news release said. They omitted, however, several items of valuable real property, a bank account and a securities account from the financial statements submitted with their offers. In 2005, their offer also sought to compromise a $1.1 million penalty assessed by the IRS on their company for failure to maintain sufficient funds in the company's trust account to pay employment taxes. Sentencing had been delayed while the government subpoenaed records. U.S. District Judge Lawrence K. Karlton sentenced Virginia Ferrari to six months in prison to be followed by six months of home confinement while serving a one-year period of supervised release, restitution to the IRS of $913,574.91, and a fine of $25,000 for subscribing to a false tax document, according to the U.S. Attorney's office. She pleaded guilty on Nov. 25, 2008. In sentencing, Karlton said that he was very troubled by the defendant's continued pattern of behavior after her guilty plea of concealing assets that would otherwise be available to pay her debt to the IRS. Court records showed that the defendant's behavior involved lying to the probation officer by saying that her home had sold in foreclosure when, in fact, it sold for more than $2 million. The sentencing hearing had been delayed to allow the government to subpoena the records of the sale. She is required begin her sentence on April 5. Bristol Bay Times Staff can be reached at editor@thebristolbaytimes.com |
Copyright 2010
The Bristol Bay Times is a publication of Alaska Newspapers, Inc. This site, its design and contents are
© 2010 and may not be reproduced without written permission of the publisher and
owner, including duplication on not-for-profit websites. Alaska Newspapers, Inc. may not own copyright to
portions of articles published; those sections are reproduced here with permission and Alaska Newspapers, Inc.
makes no provisions for further distribution
Copyright 2010
The Bristol Bay Times is a publication of Alaska Newspapers, Inc. This article is © 2010 and limited reproduction rights for personal use are granted for this printing only. This article, in any form, may not be further reproduced without written permission of the publisher and owner, including duplication for not-for-profit purposes. Portions of this article may belong to other agencies; those sections are reproduced here with permission and Alaska Newspapers, Inc. makes no provisions for further distribution.