04-07-04 -- Gomes, Carmelina -- Guilty Plea -- News Release

Owner of Edison Business Pleads Guilty to Tax Evasion

CAMDEN - The owner of an Edison-based consulting business pleaded guilty today to devising a scheme to evade federal taxes by creating false business deductions, U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie announced.

Carmelina Gomes, 37, of Edison, entered her plea before U.S. District Judge Jerome B. Simandle. Sentencing is scheduled for July 9 at 9:30 a.m.

According to the Information to which she pleaded guilty, Gomes is the sole owner and operator of Brandon Consulting Associates, Inc. (BCA), a sub-chapter S corporation which locates computer software consultants for client businesses.

At her plea hearing, Gomes admitted that beginning in December 1998 and continuing through August 2001, she used her position to devise a scheme whereby she solicited a business client to provide BCA with a series of false invoices along with money in the amount of each invoice, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Ronald Chillemi

The funds where deposited into BCA accounts or personal accounts of Gomes and her husband, identified only as A.B., and then used to make payment of the false invoices thereby returning the money to the client, Gomes admitted. Gomes admitted she included additional amounts of money to the invoice payments to compensate the client for his participation in the scheme.

Gomes admitted that she used the documents generated by the payments to claim false business expenses and then used these false expenses to claim false deductions on BCA's United States Corporate Tax Returns, which flowed through to Gomes's U.S. Joint Individual Tax Returns filed on behalf of herself and A.B. for the tax years 1999, 2000 and 2001.

Gomes admitted that BCA's corporate tax return and her joint individual return both stated approximately $53,000 in false deductions from her 1999 income of over $1.2 million, thereby avoiding approximately $14,480 in total additional taxes due the United States.

Gomes admitted that both tax returns for the tax year 2000 stated $24,600 in false deductions from her 2000 income of more than $1.3 million, thereby avoiding additional tax of $6,888. Furthermore, Gomes admitted to claiming $43,550 in false deductions for the tax year 2001 from her 2001 income of over $1.05 million and avoiding a tax liability of approximately $12,194.

The defendant pleaded guilty to one count of tax evasion and faces a statutory maximum penalty of five years' imprisonment and a fine of $100,000, or twice the gross amount of any pecuniary gain derived from the offense, or twice the gross amount of any pecuniary loss sustained by any victims of the offense.

Under U.S. Sentencing Guidelines Judge Simandle will determine the actual sentence based upon a formula that takes into account the severity and characteristics of the offense and the defendant's criminal history, if any.

Parole has been abolished in the federal system. Under the Sentencing Guidelines, defendants who are given federal custodial terms must serve nearly all that time.

Christie credited Special Agents of the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation section, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Patricia J. Haynes, and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, under the direction of U.S. Postal Inspector in Charge Martin D. Phanco.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Chillemi of the U.S. Attorney's Office Criminal Division in Camden.

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Defense Attorney: Michael B. Himmel, Esq., Iselin