Prosecutor: Montvale businessman made “tens of millions” in fraud
APRIL 16, 2015 LAST UPDATED: THURSDAY, APRIL 16, 2015, 1:21 AM
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THE RECORD
* Faces up to life in prison and $134.5M in fines for a scheme that bilked the federal government
“April 15, tax day, is a fitting date for Mr. Furando to accept responsibility for his crimes, which defrauded U.S. taxpayers of tens of millions of dollars.”
JOSH J. MINKER, U.S. ATTORNEY FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF INDIANA
A Montvale businessman earned tens of millions of dollars as part of one of the largest frauds in Indiana history, prosecutors said on Wednesday after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy, fraud and other charges.
Joseph Furando, 49, and two companies he owned, Cima Green LLC and the Caravan Trading Co., both in Park Ridge at the time of the crimes, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Indiana to participation in a scheme that prosecutors said fraudulently sold more than 35 million gallons of fuel that cost $145.5 million.
No date was set for Furando’s sentencing.
The pleas, following a guilty plea in August by a Ridgewood businesswoman who worked for Furando, Evelyn Katirina Pattison, also known as Katirina Tracy, leave three Indiana-based defendants to face trial in the case beginning on May 11 in Indianapolis.
“April 15, tax day, is a fitting date for Mr. Furando to accept responsibility for his crimes, which defrauded U.S. taxpayers of tens of millions of dollars that Congress appropriated for energy independence and a cleaner environment for all of us,” said Josh J. Minker, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Indiana.
Furando, who described the scheme to colleagues as “alchemy,” abused a federal program that offered companies a tax break for using environmentally friendly biodiesel, which contains recycled oil, prosecutors said.
Although the program awarded only one tax credit for each gallon used, Furando and his companies bought biodiesel that had already earned the tax credit and sold it to an Indiana company, E-biofuels, as newly produced fuel, prosecutors said.
E-biofuels then sold the fuel and claimed a new tax credit, selling the fuel at an inflated market price because it had the credit attached, prosecutors said.
The scheme realized “huge per gallon profits” for all the conspirators, sometimes more than $12,000 a truckload, prosecutors said.
https://www.northjersey.com/news/business/montvale-exec-pleads-guilty-in-biofuel-tax-fraud-1.1310536
