A Chicago suburb businessman has been handed a two-year sentence for defrauding the IRS out of millions. Abraham Kiswani, 54, of Burbank, Illinois, was convicted of dodging $3.7 million in federal and state income taxes. Kiswani had admitted to the tax evasion charge before a federal court last year, reports the U.S. Department of Justice.
In addition to his prison stint, U.S. District Judge Manish S. Shah slapped the businessman with a $10,000 fine on Thursday. Kiswani wasn't shy about his creative accounting while at the helm of World Security Bureau—a local security outfit going by the alias World Security Agency. Over three years, from 2010 to 2013, he directed his payroll head honcho to stop the direct deposits and pay him through checks labeled as "subcontracted services" instead—a move designed to cloak his actual compensation from the taxman's prying eyes.
Kiswani also had the gall to pass off a slew of personal spending as business expenses. Authorities found that he had kept about $10 million in earnings from Uncle Sam's view. The evasion resulted in losses north of $3.7 million to the United States and to the State of Illinois, underscored the feds involved in nailing Kiswani down, which included key players from the IRS, FBI, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the Chicago Housing Authority's Inspector General Office.
Justice was meted out with Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick J. King, Jr. holding the legal reins for the government. The case's details were made public by Morris Pasqual, Acting United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, Justin Campbell of the IRS Criminal Investigation Division, and Robert W. "Wes" Wheeler, Jr. from the FBI's Chicago Field Office.
