Former Globetel Communications, Inc. Chief Financial Officer Sentenced in Tax Fraud Scheme

R. Alexander Acosta, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Daniel W. Auer, Special Agent in Charge, Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation, and Jonathan I. Solomon, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, announced that defendant Thomas Y. Jimenez, 50, of Plantation, FL, was sentenced today to 36 months’ imprisonment, to be followed by one year of supervised release. He was also ordered to pay $587,876.52 in restitution. The sentence followed his January 2009 plea to a one count Information charging him with obstructing and impeding the due administration of the tax laws, in violation of Title 26, United States Code, Section 7212(a).

According to documents filed with the court, from 2004 through 2005, Jimenez was a Certified Public Accountant and the Chief Financial Officer (“CFO”) of GlobeTel Communications, Inc. (“GlobeTel”), a corporation formerly listed on the American Stock Exchange. As CFO, Jimenez was responsible for ensuring that Forms W-2 and Forms 1099 were prepared and timely filed with the IRS whenever GlobeTel’s corporate officers received GlobeTel stock as compensation. During 2004 and 2005, Jimenez corruptly failed to report to the IRS approximately $2,790,016.00 in stock compensation that GlobeTel paid to him and other corporate officers.

As part of the scheme to impair and impede the IRS, Jimenez knowingly utilized C&M Management Consulting, Inc. (“C&M”), a nominee entity that was used to sell GlobeTel stock owned by GlobeTel corporate officers. C&M purported to give the GlobeTel corporate officers a loan secured with the corporate officers’ GlobeTel stock. Rather than holding the stock as collateral for the purported loans, C&M sold the stock and distributed the proceeds from the sale of GlobeTel stock to the corporate officers.

As part of his plea, Jimenez admitted that he knew that the stock serving as collateral for the purported loans would be sold and the proceeds distributed to GlobeTel’s corporate officers.

U.S. Attorney Acosta commended the investigative efforts of the IRS-CI and FBI in this matter. This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Lanigan of the Fort Lauderdale Office and Trial Attorney Gregory R. Bockin of the Department of Justice’s Tax Division, Washington, D.C.