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A federal judge sentenced the owner of a Mililani dietary supplement store to 18 months in prison Thursday for tax fraud.
Former bodybuilder Amalia Ralar, owner of Muscle Inc., pleaded guilty in September to filing a false 2012 joint income tax return. She reported that her income for that year was $50,672 when her actual income was $380,364. Instead of paying $112,703 in taxes, she paid just $10,872.
Ralar, 43, has until March 2 to turn herself in to begin serving her sentence.
In exchange for her guilty plea for the 2012 tax return, the government agreed not to charge Ralar with filing false returns for 2007 through 2011, 2013 and 2014, but held her responsible for repaying the Internal Revenue Service the taxes she owes for the entire period.
Her lawyer Stephen Pingree said he gave the IRS a check for $354,511 prior to Thursday’s sentencing hearing.
In addition to the prison term U.S. District Senior Judge Helen Gillmor fined Ralar $40,000.
Ralar also faces civil penalties including interest on the $354,511.
Gillmor told Ralar that her behavior was “greedy” and “selfish.” She told Ralar that her suggestion to investigators that she made a mistake on the tax returns because of messy record keeping is not believable because Ralar has an accounting degree. Gillmor also noted that Ralar made more than 200 cash deposits in amounts below the $10,000 threshold that would have required the bank to file a report, and that she used the money she withheld from the IRS to purchase her home outright.