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Lafourche shrimper pleads guilty to bribing an IRS agent
Source:
houmatoday.com
- Jan 7, 2012
A commercial shrimper from Cut Off pleaded guilty in federal court Thursday to offering an agent with the Internal Revenue Service $6,000 in cash and shrimp in exchange for faking tax documents.
Vinh Tran, 61, owner of St. Vincent Seafood in Leeville, offered the agent money and shrimp over the course of several meetings from 2007 through 2010, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Louisiana. Tran told the agent he wanted tax documents to reflect that his business owed little or no taxes to the federal government, officials said. A legitimate audit of his business showed Tran owed about $2 million in taxes.
When federal agents questioned Tran in April 2010, he admit offering the bribes and said he knew it was wrong, authorities said.
He will be sentenced April 26. Bribing a public official carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison, a $250,000 and three years of supervised release.
Category: General Business
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