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April 8, 2004
The United States Attorney for the Northern District of California announced that a federal grand jury returned an indictment yesterday against Ulysses Q. Nguyen, 36, formerly of San Jose and currently of Westminster, California, charging numerous tax and obstruction offenses arising out of his alleged failure to pay taxes on over $3 million generated by two computer-related business he operated in San Jose from 1997 to 2001, and his alleged attempts to conceal the income from Internal Revenue Service (IRS) by lying to federal agents and submitting fictitious business receipts.
The fourteen count indictment charges five counts of income tax evasion in violation of 26 U.S.C. 7201; five counts of willful failure to file an individual tax return in violation of 26 U.S.C. § 7203; one count of interference with the due administration of the internal revenue laws in violation of 26 U.S.C. § 7212(a); and three counts of making a false statement to a government agency in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1001.
According to the indictment, Mr. Nguyen is alleged to have willfully attempted to evade income taxes due and owing, and also willfully failed to file individual tax returns, from 1997 to 2001. The total amount of taxes alleged to have been evaded is estimated to be approximately $1,277,434, based on unreported income of more than $3 million.
According to the indictment, Mr. Nguyen was a resident in San Jose, California who owned and operated businesses in San Jose engaged in the buying, selling and repair of computers and computer peripherals. The computer businesses include Ulysses Enterprise, which sold CPU modules of Sun Microsystems, and Pacific Disk Drive Exchange, which sold and repaired computer disk drives. Both of those businesses were located in San Jose.
On the obstruction of justice count, the indictment alleges that on April 3, 2000, Mr. Nguyen provided two Special Agents from the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation Division, with approximately forty-nine fictitious purchase orders concerning purported business expenses in 1999. The indictment further alleges that Mr. Nguyen made false statements to the IRS concerning his business activities and taxable income.
The maximum statutory penalty for each count in violation of 26 U.S.C. § 7201, 26 U.S.C. § 7212(a), and 18 U.S.C. § 1001 is five years and a fine of $250,000. The maximum statutory penalty for each count in violation of 26 U.S.C. § 7203 is one year in prison and a fine of $100,000. However, any sentence following conviction would be dictated by the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account a number of factors, and would be imposed in the discretion of the Court. An indictment simply contains allegations against an individual and, as with all defendants, Mr. Nguyen must be presumed innocent unless and until convicted.
Mr. Nguyen is expected to make his initial appearance in federal court in San Jose, but a date has yet to be set.
The prosecution is the result of a multi-year investigation by the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigations Division. The investigation was overseen by the Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property (CHIP) Unit of the United States Attorney's Office. Mark L. Krotoski is the Assistant U.S. Attorney from the CHIP Unit prosecuting the case.
A copy of this press release may be found on the U.S. Attorney's Office's website at www.usdoj.gov/usao/can. Related court documents and information may be found on the District Court website at www.cand.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.cand.uscourts/gov.
All press inquiries to the U.S. Attorney's Office should be directed to Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher P. Sonderby, Chief of the CHIP Unit, at (408) 535-5037, or Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew J. Jacobs at (415) 436-7181.
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