Print subscriber but without online access? Activate your Digital Account now.
Federal prosecutors have leveled more accusations against retired car dealer James Pflueger, who faces trial next month on conspiracy and tax evasion charges.
Pflueger, 86, is charged with conspiring to conceal from the IRS the payments his former company, Pflueger Inc., made to cover his personal expenses for 2003 through 2006, and his profit from the sale of the California investment property. He is also charged with filing false federal income tax returns and failing to report his holdings in the Swiss bank account.
Now the government says Pflueger had his personal expenses paid by Pflueger Inc. even before 2003, although a precise date is not mentioned in documents filed last week in preparation for the trial.
In the filings, the government also said the company paid for the health insurance of his Pflueger’s daughters, a personal companion and two gardeners who worked for his estranged wife. Prosecutors also now say he filed false Hawaii and California income tax returns and signed his estranged wife’s name on joint state and federal tax returns.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office says it will present evidence of this not to support new charges, but to show Pflueger’s motive, intent, plan and understanding of his actions.
Trial will take place before U.S District Judge Leslie Kobayashi. Pflueger earlier this month waived his right to a jury trial.
Four others charged with Pflueger in 2010 pleaded guilty last year.
Los Angeles certified public accountant Dennis Lawrence Duban pleaded guilty in October to preparing a false income tax return for Pflueger that underreported the gain on the sale of the California property. He also admitted that he assisted Pflueger in creating an offshore trust to deposit the more than $14 million in proceeds into a Swiss bank.
He admitted that he and Pflueger didn’t tell the IRS about Pflueger’s interest in the account until after the start of the criminal investigation.
Duban also pleaded guilty to helping Pflueger’s son, Charles Alan Pflueger, prepare a false income tax return, which failed to report as income the personal expenses that Pflueger Inc. paid for him.
Alan Pflueger pleaded guilty in May to filing a false personal income tax return. He admitted that he had one of the company’s subsidiaries pay his credit card and home utility bills and for landscaping and maintenance of his personal residences. He also admitted that he knew that Pflueger Inc., of which he became the sole owner in 2002, had been paying certain personal expenses for his father.
Company Chief Financial Officer Randall Ken Kurata pleaded guilty to filing a false corporate tax return that listed the personal expenses the company paid for the younger Pflueger as business deductions.
Pflueger’s secretary, Julie Ann Kam, pleaded guilty to filing a false personal income tax return and admitted she had one of the company’s subsidiaries cover her monthly car payments and pay for her eye surgery.
83