Federal Grand Jury Indicts Businessman on Tax Evasion Charges

CHICAGO — A federal grand jury in Chicago has indicted a businessman on tax evasion charges for allegedly scheming to evade personal income taxes for three years.

As the owner of the security firm World Security Bureau, ABRAHAM KISWANI, also known as “Ibriham Kiswani,” willfully failed to pay the full amount of taxes on his personal income for the calendar years 2010, 2012, and 2013, according to an indictment returned in U.S. District Court in Chicago.  Kiswani concealed some of his income for those years by arranging for WSB to pay certain personal items, including those held or purchased in the name of family members, and disguising them as business expenses.  The expenditures included mortgage payments, homeowner’s association dues, property taxes, sewer and water fees on a personal residence, slip fees and insurance for a boat, slip fees for jet skis, and gold coins, the indictment states.  Kiswani covered up some of his 2013 income by arranging for WSB to pay some of his wedding expenses and then entering those payments in WSB’s records as business expenses, the indictment states.

The indictment charges Kiswani, 49, of Burbank, with three counts of tax evasion and one count of willfully filing a false corporate tax return.  Kiswani pleaded not guilty at his arraignment Tuesday before U.S. District Judge Manish S. Shah in Chicago.

The indictment was announced by John R. Lausch, Jr., United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; Gabriel L. Grchan, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division in Chicago; and Jeffrey S. Sallet, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.  Substantial assistance was provided by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the Chicago Housing Authority Office of the Inspector General.  The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Sheri H. Mecklenburg.

The public is reminded that an indictment is not evidence of guilt.  The defendant is presumed innocent and entitled to a fair trial at which the government has the burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.  Each tax evasion count carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison, while filing a false return is punishable by up to three years.  If convicted, the Court must impose a reasonable sentence under federal statutes and the advisory U.S. Sentencing Guidelines.