Press Releases

January 16, 2007

PRESS RELEASE

FORMER DANVERS RESIDENT SENTENCED ON TAX FRAUD CHARGE

Boston, MA... A former resident of Danvers, Massachusetts was sentenced today by a federal judge for filing a false federal income tax return for the 1999 tax year.

United States Attorney Michael J. Sullivan; Assistant Attorney General Eileen J. O’Connor for the Department of Justice’s Tax Division; and Douglas A. Bricker, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation, announced that NADINE J. GRIFFIN, age 46, a former resident of Danvers, Massachusetts, now residing in New Hampshire, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge William G. Young to 2 years and 3 months in prison, to be followed by 1 year of supervised release, and a $6,000 fine.

In July 2006, a federal trial jury convicted GRIFFIN for filing a false federal income tax return for the 1999 tax year. The evidence presented during the seven-day trial proved that GRIFFIN failed to report gross sales earned in 1999 as a salesperson for Global Prosperity, an organization that was in the business of selling a 12-part audiotape series and tickets to offshore seminars both of which were sold through a network of salespersons. The offshore seminars were held in such places as Aruba and Cancun, Mexico. At the seminars vendors promoted and marketed fraudulent tax schemes.

The evidence also showed that GRIFFIN was one of Global’s top salespersons. As a salesperson for Global Prosperity, GRIFFIN sold the audiotape, which retailed for $1,250 per series, as well as the tickets to the offshore seminars, which ranged in price from $6,250 per ticket to $18,750 per ticket. In the 1999 tax year, GRIFFIN failed to report in excess of $170,000 she made in gross sales from the tapes and tickets.

Several individuals associated with Global Prosperity have been convicted of tax related charges. In February 2003, Margo Jordan, a Global Prosperity retailer from Wilton, Maine, pleaded guilty to a charge of income tax evasion. In July 2004, Global co-founder Daniel P. Andersen, formerly of Leominster, Massachusetts, pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiring to defraud the Internal Revenue Service. In April 2005, Dwayne Robare, formerly of Leominster, Massachusetts, pleaded guilty to a charge of income tax evasion for the 2000 tax year.
The case was investigated by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation.
It is being prosecuted by Trial Attorneys Christopher J. Maietta and John N. Kane of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Tax Division.

Press Contact: Samantha Martin, (617) 748-3139