June 17, 2002
For Immediate Release
P R E S S R E L E A S E
Edward H. Kubo, Jr., United States Attorney for the District of Hawaii, and Eileen J. O'Connor, Assistant Attorney General of the United States Department of Justice Tax Division, in Washington, D.C., announced today that Hawaii businesswoman ROBERTA LEA KAPIOLANI CABRAL, age 44, entered pleas of guilty before visiting Senior District Court Judge Manuel L. Real to a total of four counts, including two counts of federal income tax evasion for the tax years 1992 and 1993, one count of willful failure to file an income tax return for the tax year 1994, and one count of participating in a wire fraud scheme to defraud Unity House, Inc.
Today's guilty pleas are to charges contained in the Fourth Superseding Indictment filed in federal court on April 25, 2001. According to the plea agreement filed with the court, CABRAL willfully failed to file a federal or State of Hawaii income tax return for the tax year 1994 during which year she received gross income in excess of $50,000 in commissions from North Pacific Investments, Inc. for her participation in a $10 million dollar offshore investment scheme entered into by Unity House, Inc. Furthermore, CABRAL admitted in her plea agreement that the money she received for her participation in that scheme were wire transferred to her through a British Virgin Islands corporation controlled by CABRAL and used by her for the concealment of income.
CABRAL further admitted in the plea agreement that she created HONUA Group, LLC, through an unindicted nominee and opened a bank account on November 14, 1997, using her brother's social security number, in order to hide income she received, and in a willful attempt to evade over $118,657.00 in taxes she owed for the calendar years 1992 and 1993. CABRAL also admitted in the plea agreement to participating in a scheme to defraud Unity House, Inc. with her now deceased co-defendant Roderick Rodriquez. As also outlined in her plea agreement, CABRAL devised with Rodriquez a scheme to "pad" the budget of a one-hour television project funded by Unity House, Inc. entitled "Heavenly Road", later known as "Blue Hawaii", for which she was to receive a kickback of $150,000.
Senior District Court Judge Real scheduled sentencing of CABRAL for November 1, 2002. At that time, CABRAL faces a maximum penalty of up to five years imprisonment on each of the two counts of income tax evasion (26 U.S.C. § 7201) and one count of wire fraud (18 U.S.C. § 1343). Each of these charges carries a potential fine of up to $250,000 and, except for the wire fraud charge, the costs of prosecution. For her willful failure to file a federal tax return, CABRAL faces a maximum term of one year of imprisonment and a $100,000 fine.
This criminal investigation was conducted by the Internal Revenue Service,
Criminal Investigation Division, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The prosecution was handled by Special Attorney Edward E. (Ted) Groves
of the United States Department of Justice, Tax Division, Western Criminal
Enforcement Section, and Assistant United States Attorney Louis Bracco.
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