2002-10-18 -- Tirabassi, Benjamin et al. -- Guilty Plea -- News Release

Three Family Members Plead Guilty to Tax Charges in Connection with Contracts at Fort Monmouth

NEWARK - Three members of the same family pleaded guilty today to charges in connection with contracting work done by their companies with the U.S. Army base at Fort Monmouth, U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie announced.

Benjamin Tirabassi, 61, of Holmdel, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Anne E. Thompson to a one-count information charging him with tax evasion; his wife Barbara Tirabassi, 61, pleaded guilty to filing a false claim for payment with the Army, and their daughter, Brenda Sofield, 36, of Wayside, pleaded guilty to tax evasion, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Alain Leibman.

Judge Thompson set sentencing for each of the defendants for Jan. 14 at 10 a.m. Each defendant faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Under U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, Judge Thompson will determine the actual sentences based on a formula that takes into account the severity and characteristics of the offenses and the defendants' criminal histories, if any.

Parole has been abolished in the federal system. Under Sentencing Guidelines, defendants that are given custodial terms must serve nearly all that time.

Benjamin Tirabassi had two companies, Technical Evaluation Research and TERI Research. Both companies had contracts with the Army's Communications and Electronics Command, headquartered at Fort Monmouth, to perform research in voice and data communications.

Brenda Sofield worked for the companies in personnel and financial management and was also the majority shareholder of Prime Technologies, which subcontracted with Technical Evaluation Research and TERI Research. Barbara Tirabassi worked for her husband's companies in the areas of accounts receivable and accounts payable management.

Benjamin Tirabassi admitted in court that he falsified tax returns filed in the years 1994 through 1999 in an effort to evade income taxes. The scheme, he told Judge Thompson, involved understating the income to the companies and overstating their losses; because they were Subchapter S corporations under the Internal Revenue Code, both their income and their losses were, subject to certain rules, passed through to his individual income tax returns.

Benjamin Tirabassi told the court that he took various steps to accomplish the scheme, including:

• failing to report checks received from the Department of Defense

• inflating the year-ending accounts receivable figure to reduce income

making loans to the companies at year-end to allow him to deduct losses on his own returns, then quickly having the companies repay the loans without reporting those monies as income; and

• taking distributions from the companies without reporting those monies as income.

The Information charges that Benjamin Tirabassi failed to report $4,045,145 in additional income, resulting in evaded taxes of $1,492,129.

Brenda Sofield admitted in court that she falsified tax returns of Prime Technologies filed in the years 1994 through 1997 in an effort to evade income taxes. The scheme, she told Judge Thompson, involved understating the income to the companies and overstating their losses; because they were Subchapter S corporations under the Internal Revenue Code, both their income and their losses were, subject to certain rules, passed through to her individual income tax returns.

Brenda Sofield told the court that she took various steps to accomplish the scheme, including:

• failing to report checks received from Technical Evaluation Research; and

• inflating the year-ending accounts receivable figure to reduce income.

Barbara Tirabassi admitted that in January 1995 she filed a false claim for payment with the Army in connection with a contract held by Technical Evaluation Research. She submitted an invoice claiming that the company had in December 1994 expended $268,500 on computer equipment which, she admitted, the company had not done. Only after the Department of Defense paid the company for the invoice in February 1995 did Technical Evaluation Research in January 1996 pay its vendor for the computers.

Christie credited Special Agents of the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, under the direction of James Murawski, Resident Agent in Charge of the Edison field office; Special Agents of the IRS, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Anne D. Fahy, and special agents of the United States Postal Service, Office of Inspector General, under the direction of Karla W. Corcoran, Inspector General, with bringing the case.

The Government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Leibman of the U.S. Attorney's Government Fraud Unit in Newark.

Defense attorneys: Robert Bonney, Esq. (Benjamin Tirabassi) Red Bank

Edward Dauber, Esq. (Barbara Tirabassi) Newark

Robert Weir, Esq. (Brenda Sofield) Red Bank