Gregory A. White, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, announced today that a one-count Information was filed against Jonathan S. Solonche, charging him with willfully attempting to evade income taxes for the year 2005. According to court records, Solonche resides in Solon, Ohio.

The Information alleges that during 2005, Solonche entered into an arrangement with a friend employed as an accountant (referred to in the Information as “Accountant”), in which the defendant acted as a nominee to receive and disburse funds on behalf of the accountant, which the accountant wrongfully took from one of the accountant’s clients (“Client”), as follows. The accountant provided ten checks totaling approximately $134,793 written on the client’s bank account payable to Solonche, which Solonche deposited into a personal account. The accountant also provided Solonche twelve of the client’s checks totaling approximately $165,155 payable to a defunct business of Solonche’s (known as Turnkey Lighting & Sound), which Solonche deposited into an account opened in that name as part of this arrangement. At the accountant’s direction, Solonche provided most of these deposited funds back to the accountant, by issuing checks from his personal account and the Turnkey Lighting account payable to cash and providing the cash to the accountant, or by issuing checks from those accounts payable to the accountant or to third parties for payments on behalf of the accountant. By arrangement with the accountant, Solonche kept approximately $37,517 of the deposited client funds for Solonche’s own use, as consideration for assisting the accountant in the handling of these moneys.

The Information charges Solonche with attempting to evade taxes of approximately $9,173 owing for the year 2005, by filing a false income tax return on which he understated his taxable income by approximately $37,210, as a result of failing to report the client funds he kept under the arrangement with the accountant.

If convicted, the defendant’s sentence will be determined by the Court after review of factors unique to this case, including the defendant’s prior criminal record, if any, the defendant’s role in the offense and the characteristics of the violation. In all cases the sentence will not exceed the statutory maximum and in most cases it will be less than the maximum.

The government’s case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney John M. Siegel, following an investigation by the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation Division, Cleveland, Ohio. The investigation is continuing.

An information is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt. A defendant is entitled to a fair trial in which it will be the government’s burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.