Three Involved in Stealing Gold from East Bay Manufacturer Sentenced

OAKLAND, CA—Three East Bay men were sentenced in United States District Court in Oakland today for their roles in a gold stealing conspiracy, United States Attorney Joseph P. Russoniello announced.

Carlos Coronado, 39, of Alamo, Calif., was charged on Aug. 14, 2008, in a Superseding Information with one count of conspiracy, twenty-four counts of Transportation of Stolen Goods in Interstate Commerce and one count of Making and Subscribing a False Tax Return. He pled guilty on Sept. 19, 2008. Today, United States District Court Judge D. Lowell Jensen sentenced him to one year and one day in prison and ordered him to pay $496,055 to his former employer Systron Donner and $485,000 to the Internal Revenue Service.

Jerry Kahue, 31, of Vallejo, Calif., was charged on Nov. 7, 2008, in an Information with one count of conspiracy, twenty-four counts of Transportation of Stolen Goods in Interstate Commerce and one count of Making and Subscribing a False Tax Return. He pled guilty on Nov. 21, 2008. Today, Judge Jensen sentenced him to one year home confinement and ordered him to pay $80,000 to his former employer Systron Donner and $16,221 to the Internal Revenue Service.

David Siharath, 36, of Pittsburg, Calif., was charged on March 19, 2009, in an Information with one count of conspiracy and one count of Making and Subscribing a False Tax Return. He pled guilty today and Judge Jensen sentenced him to three years probation and ordered him to pay $18,500 to his former employer Systron Donner.

According to the information, Coronado, Kahue and Siharath worked at Systron Donner, an automotive parts manufacturer located in Concord, Calif. From at least 2000 through January 2008, they, along with others, stole gold that is used in the manufacture of stability control systems for high-end automobiles, and sold and shipped the gold to a business in New York. The defendants failed to claim the income from the gold on their tax returns.

The two remaining defendants in the case, Rudy Artap and Luis Tobar Marquiz, are scheduled to be sentenced April 24 at 10:00 a.m. before Judge Jensen.

Maureen Bessette is the Assistant U.S. Attorney who is prosecuting the case with the assistance of Laurie Best. The prosecution is the result of an investigation conducted by the Concord Police Department, the Internal Revenue Service - Criminal Investigation, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and U.S. Postal Service.

Further Information:

Case #: CR08-00535DLJ

A copy of this press release may be found on the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s website at http://www.justice.gov/usao/can/.

Electronic court filings and further procedural and docket information are available at https://ecf.cand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl.

Judges’ calendars with schedules for upcoming court hearings can be viewed on the court’s website at www.cand.uscourts.gov.