United States Attorney's Office District of Connecticut
Press Release

WEST HARTFORD MAN SENTENCED FOR TAX FRAUD

Kevin J. O'Connor, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that MARC C. ABRAHMS, age 56, of 6 Chesterfield Lane, West Hartford, Connecticut, was sentenced today by Senior United States District Judge Alfred V. Covello in Hartford to three years of probation. Judge Covello also ordered ABRAHMS to spend the first six months of his probation confined to his home with electronic monitoring, and to pay a fine in the amount of $2000. Judge Covello further ordered ABRAHMS to perform 1000 hours of community service for the Community Renewal Team, Inc., at the Youth Artisan & Technology Center in Hartford, where, beginning this summer, he will serve as a photography instructor for middle school-aged children.

ABRAHMS has also agreed to personally contribute $50,000 to the Connecticut Children's Medical Center and $50,000 to St. Francis Hospital, and has agreed not to claim a deduction on his personal income tax returns with respect to either charitable contribution.

On March 9, 2004, ABRAHMS, the former president and sole-shareholder of Abrahms Group Benefits Inc. and Abrahms Life Services, Inc. in Newington, Connecticut, pleaded guilty to a two-count Information charging him with tax fraud, admitting that for the years 1997 through 2000, he filed materially false corporate income tax returns in which he improperly claimed deductions for approximately $729,000 worth of non-business-related expenses, including payments for domestic help, household services, personal travel and other expenses for the defendant's personal benefit. According to statements made by the prosecutor in court during the guilty plea proceeding, the non-business-related expenses included, among other things, more than $500,000 in salary payments to ABRAHMS' girlfriend and two sons, even though they did not work at the insurance companies; $84,500 to workers who provided housekeeping, nanny and personal shopping services; $53,518 to workers who provided landscaping, electrical work, painting and woodworking for ABRAHMS' home; $23,000 in personal travel to Paris, Hawaii, Vancouver, Tahiti and Mexico City; and $59,000 in miscellaneous expenses, including those associated with his son's bar mitzvah, a 50th birthday party and a planned wedding reception.

ABRAHMS also admitted that the individual income tax returns he filed between 1997 and 2000 materially understated the amount of income he earned during those years by failing to include as income the value of the personal expenditures paid for by Abrahms Group Benefits Inc. and Abrahms Life Services Inc. ABRAHMS acknowledged that he owes the Internal Revenue Service approximately $297,525 in back taxes, exclusive of penalties and interest, as a result of his willful failure to file accurate personal and corporate income tax returns.

ABRAHMS has made full restitution to the Government, paying approximately $684,000 in taxes, penalties and interest.

This case was investigated by the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation Division, and was prosecuted by Supervisory Assistant United States Attorney Ronald S. Apter.

CONTACT:

U.S. ATTORNEY'S OFFICE
Tom Carson
(203) 821-3722
thomas.carson@usdoj.gov