PRESS RELEASE

For Immediate Release

June 12, 2003

Jim Letten, United States Attorney, Eastern District of Louisiana, Assistant Attorney General Eileen O'Connor, Tax Division, United States Department of Justice, and Michael J. Nelson, Special Agent in Charge of the New Orleans Field Office of the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation Division, announced today the indictment of two brothers, Ayman Askar, 38 of Metairie, Louisiana and Yousef Askar, 50 of Gretna, Louisiana. Each defendant is charged with one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and file false personal income tax returns and three counts of filing false personal tax returns for years 1997, 1998 and 1999.

The indictment charges that Ayman Askar was an owner of both Jackson Food, a retail grocery store located at 511 Jackson Avenue, New Orleans, Louisiana and A & Y Food Store, a retail grocery store located at 1937 Orleans Avenue, New Orleans, Louisiana. The indictment further alleges that Yousef Askar was an employee of Jackson Food and an owner of A&Y Food Store.

The indictment alleges that from 1997 through 1999, the defendants Ayman and Yousef Askar for their personal benefit, transferred funds from the corporate accounts of Jackson Food and A&Y Food to their personal control without reporting the funds they personally obtained on their individual income tax returns for 1997, 1998 and 1999.

It is alleged that the transfer of funds was executed by issuing corporate checks to cash and to third parties. Some of the checks were then deposited into individual bank accounts that the defendants controlled and the proceeds used to pay personal expenses, including forwarding money to accounts located outside the United States. The indictment further alleges that the defendants also sent some checks directly to accounts located outside the United States and used others to directly pay personal expenses

The investigation of this case was conducted by the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation Division and is being prosecuted by Senior Trial Attorney Barry Jonas of the Tax Division, United States Department of Justice and Assistant United States Attorney Robert J. Boitmann. Jonas said that if convicted, each defendant faces a maximum sentence of fourteen years imprisonment and fines of $1,000,000 (one million dollars) or twice the gross gain to the defendants or twice the gross loss to the Internal Revenue Service.

It is to be emphasized that an indictment is an accusation and that the defendants named are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.