Napa Doctor Charged with Tax Fraud
Overstated Deductions and Expenses
| U.S. Attorney’s Office April 18, 2012 |
SAN FRANCISCO—Ali Sedghi Vaziri of Napa, California, was arraigned in federal court yesterday after being charged by a federal grand jury in San Francisco with six counts of filing a false federal income tax return, announced United States Attorney Melinda Haag and Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation Special Agent in Charge Marcus Williams.
According to the indictment, which was unsealed yesterday, Vaziri, 47, was a medical doctor who owned and operated a medical practice in Napa. For 2005 and 2006, Vaziri overstated his business expenses, when he knew his business expenses were substantially less than the amount stated on the returns. For 2007 and 2008, Vaziri overstated his total deductions on his corporate income tax returns filed for Ali S. Vaziri M.D. Inc., when he knew his total deductions were substantially less than the amount stated on the return. This resulted in the reporting of incorrect amounts of non-passive loss on the 2007 individual income tax returns and non-passive income on the 2008 individual income tax returns that Vaziri filed.
Vaziri pled not guilty to the charges and was released on a $250,000 secured bond. He is next scheduled to appear in federal court on April 30 for a status hearing before United States District Court Judge James Ware.
The maximum statutory penalty for each count of willfully subscribing a false income tax return, in violation of 26 U.S.C. § 7206(1), is three years in prison and a fine of $100,000. However, any sentence following conviction would be imposed by the court after consideration of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and the federal statute governing the imposition of a sentence, 18 U.S.C. § 3553.
Katherine B. Dowling is the Assistant U.S. Attorney who is prosecuting this case with the assistance of Rawaty Yim. The prosecution is the result of an investigation by the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Please note, an indictment contains only allegations against an individual and, as with all defendants, Vaziri must be presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
A copy of this press release may be found on the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s website at www.usdoj.gov/usao/can.