FORMER BUSINESSMAN FOUND GUILTY OF FILING FALSE TAX RETURNS

FROM:  U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Former Pennsylvania Businessman Convicted of Filing False Returns
Jonathon Felix, formerly of Villanova, Pa., was found guilty by a federal jury of willfully signing and filing false income tax returns, the Justice Department and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced today. U.S. District Court Judge for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania Petrese Tucker presided over the trial in Philadelphia.

According to testimony and evidence presented to the jury at trial, Felix operated a corporation called United Professional Plans Inc. (UPPI), located in Philadelphia, which he co-owned with his father until he passed away in 2000. The evidence showed that while operating UPPI, Felix removed significant funds from the company in various ways from 1999 through 2002, causing the failure of UPPI. Felix deposited these business funds into his personal accounts or used them for personal expenditures. Felix willfully signed and filed false individual income tax returns for those years that substantially under-reported his income and did not include the funds he appropriated from UPPI.   Felix’s criminal conduct caused a tax loss to the IRS of about $390,000.
     
Felix faces a maximum potential sentence of 12 years in prison and a $1 million fine.   Judge Tucker scheduled sentencing for Aug. 23, 2012.

Assistant Attorney General Kathryn Keneally of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and Zane David Memeger, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, thanked special agents of IRS - Criminal Investigation and the Labor Department’s Office of Inspector General, who provided valuable assistance in conducting the investigation, and Tax Division Trial Attorney Patrick J. Murray and Assistant U.S. Attorney Floyd Miller, who prosecuted the case.