September 5, 2003

PRESS RELEASE

RHODE ISLAND WOMAN CONVICTED OF FILING
FALSE DOCUMENTS WITH THE IRS

Boston, MA... A West Warwick, Rhode Island resident pleaded guilty yesterday to submitting fake cancelled checks to the IRS in an attempt to prove that she had already made payments to the IRS on an outstanding tax obligation.

United States Attorney, Michael J. Sullivan; Eileen J. O'Connor, Assistant Attorney General of the Department of Justice's Tax Division; and Joseph A. Galasso, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation, announced that CHRISTINE ANASTASIADIS, age 49, of 60 Crossland Road, West Warwick, Rhode Island, pleaded guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge Lawrence P. Cohen to an information charging her with submitting false documents to the IRS.

The prosecutor told the Court that, had the case proceeded to trial, the evidence would have proven that on specific dates in 1999 through 2001, ANASTASIADIS, delivered to the IRS what she purported to be checks cancelled by the IRS as proof that she had previously made payments to the IRS on her outstanding tax obligations. According to the information, ANASTASIADIS created the fake cancelled checks by using checks that had been endorsed and executed by actual companies, and photocopying, cutting and pasting the checks so as to make them appear to have been negotiated by the IRS for ANASTASIADIS' payment of an outstanding tax balance.

Magistrate Judge Cohen scheduled sentencing for December 3, 2003. ANASTASIADIS faces a maximum penalty of 1 year imprisonment, and/or a $10,000 fine.

The case was investigated by Special Agents of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation. It is being prosecuted by Trial Attorney Karen E. Kelly assigned to the Tax Division of the Department of Justice.

Press Contact: Samantha Martin, (617) 748-3139