A Romanian citizen who resides in Davenport, Fla., has pleaded guilty to a charge of inducing aliens to enter the United States illegally, Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Paul I. Perez for the Middle District of Florida announced today.

Constantin C. Durbalau, 30, entered the plea today before U.S. District Judge Anne C. Conway at the federal court in Orlando.

In his plea agreement, Durbalau admitted that during the past three years he personally helped as many as 24 Romanians enter or remain in the United States through fraudulent means. As part of this scheme, Durbalau and another individual prepared fraudulent visa applications for the aliens that falsely stated that they were circus performers coming to work in Florida circuses. In fact, the aliens were not circus performers and were not needed at any of the circuses listed in the applications. Rather, the visa applications were simply a means for the aliens to enter or remain in the United States and were provided by Durbalau in return for a fee of between $2,000 and $3,500 per alien. As part of his plea agreement, Durbalau agreed to be removed to Romania upon the completion of his prison sentence. Sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 12, 2007. Durbalau also agreed to forfeit to the United States approximately $50,000 he earned in smuggling fees.

The case was investigated by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services at the Department of Homeland Security. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Cynthia Hawkins of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida and Trial Attorney Arlene Reidy of the Domestic Security Section of the U.S. Department of Justice.

Judge Alejandro Solis initially placed Pinochet under house arrest in October, marking Pinochet's first detention on torture charges, in connection with 36 cases of kidnapping, 23 cases of torture and a single case of homicide at the Villa Grimaldi prison, an infamous political detention center operated by Pinochet's secret police between 1974 and 1977. AP has more. El Mercurio has local coverage. In an extraordinary statement released on his 91st birthday Saturday Pinochet publicly assumed "full political responsibility" for the actions of his 1973-90 military regime. Pinochet nonetheless justified the military coup against Socialist Salvador Allende that brought him to power as having being necessary to preserve Chile's integrity amid "the continuation and worsening of the worse political and economic crisis than one can remember."

Many of the efforts to soften the corporate accountability reforms of the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act are being pushed by the same corporations that employed questionable accounting and business practices before the Sarbanes-Oxley reforms, New York state attorney general and governor-elect Eliot Spitzer said in an interview with the Financial Times published Monday.

Last week, US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson  accused Sarbanes-Oxley of raising the cost of doing business in America, citing declining share sales since 2002 as one example of its impact, and recommended legislative tweaks to the Act, especially to the internal control structure requirements of Section 404. Spitzer said Monday that individual corporations are responsible for their own poor performances, and that corporate accountability and ethics will strengthen US markets in the long run.

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act has been an object of criticism since its passage in the wake of the Enron debacle and other high-profile corporate scandals. Rep. Michael Oxley, one of the law's co-sponsors, said last year that the legislation was "rushed" and included "excessive" corporate reforms. A GAO report earlier this year noted that an increasing number of small businesses are going private in order to avoid disproportionately higher costs of complying with the law, prompting several senators to urge regulators to find ways to make it less onerous for smaller companies to comply.

Over the past several years, Justice Department prosecutors in concert with IRS agents have aggressively worked to identify and prosecute tax cheats and promoters of tax fraud schemes. Increased efforts to stop fraud have resulted in numerous federal injunctions to stop the sale of bogus tax advice; court orders for the IRS to obtain records of offshore credit cards used by the people who transfer assets overseas to evade their tax obligations; and lengthy prison sentences for individuals who engage in fraudulent behavior.

Today the Justice Department announced that Lanny R. White of Orem, Utah pleaded guilty to a felony charge of conspiracy to defraud the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and to commit mail and wire fraud, in connection with the promotion of a tax and investment fraud scheme. White is the 11th defendant who promoted a trust scheme that defrauded the IRS of more than $5 million in tax revenue.

Other convictions in this case include:

*In March 2004, Orem, Utah attorney Todd Cannon pleaded guilty to a felony charge of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and to defraud the IRS. Cannon admitted that his actions cost the federal treasury almost $3 million in lost tax revenue. Cannon also admitted that he allowed his fellow conspirators to fraudulently use and invest over $1 million of client funds for purposes other than those promised to the clients. As a condition of his guilty plea, Cannon agreed to surrender his law license.

*In March 2004, Dr. Lance Hatch, a Walla Walla, Washington chiropractor, pleaded guilty to a felony charge of conspiracy to defraud the IRS. Hatch admitted that his actions cost the federal treasury more than $3 million in lost tax revenue.

*In April 2004, Valencia, California attorneys Martin Arnoldini and Jerrold Boschma each pleaded guilty to a felony charge of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and to defraud the IRS. Arnoldini and Boschma admitted their actions caused a loss of federal tax revenue totaling approximately $3.6 million and also admitted to participating in fraudulent investment schemes, which led to clients losing approximately $1.3 million. As a condition of their guilty pleas, Arnoldini, who held an advanced degree in tax law, and Boschma agreed to surrender their law licenses.

*In April 2004, David J. Orr of Salt Lake City, Utah pleaded guilty to a felony charge of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and to defraud the IRS. Orr admitted that his actions cost the federal treasury between $5 million and $10 million in lost tax revenue. Orr also admitted that he obtained between $5 million and $7 million from clients by misrepresenting his investment experience and the safety and expected return on the investments he marketed. Orr further admitted causing client assets to be commingled and misappropriated.

*In April 2004, Sandy, Utah attorney Michael Behunin pleaded guilty to a felony charge of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and to defraud the IRS. Behunin admitted that his actions cost the federal treasury between $950,000 and $1.5 million in lost tax revenue. Behunin also admitted to participating in a fraudulent railroad bond investment scheme, causing clients to lose between $350,000 and $450,000. As a condition of his guilty plea, Behunin agreed to surrender his law license.

*In February 2005, R. Scot Stokes of Henderson, Nevada pleaded guilty to a felony charge of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and to defraud the IRS. Stokes admitted that his actions cost the federal treasury between $7 million and $10 million. Stokes also admitted participating in fraudulent investment schemes that caused customers to lose between $2.5 million and $5 million.

*In March 2005, former IRS Revenue Agent Marissa Hyde of Overland, Kansas, who pleaded guilty in August 2004 to a felony charge of interfering with the administration of the internal revenue laws, was sentenced to 3 months in federal prison, 3 months home confinement, and was fined $5,000. Hyde admitted using her previous employment as an IRS revenue agent to give the trust scheme an appearance of legitimacy.

*In April 2005, Edward T. Woodger of Sandy, Utah pleaded guilty to a felony charge of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and to defraud the IRS. Woodger admitted that his actions cost the federal treasury more than $7 million. Woodger also admitted participating as the “offshore money man” in fraudulent investment schemes, that caused customers to lose between $2.5 million and $5 million.

*In February 2006, Max C. Lloyd, a Midvale, Utah CPA licensed in California was sentenced to 21 months in federal prison for aiding and assisting in the preparation of a false federal income tax return. Lloyd previously pleaded guilty to the felony charge in October 2005.

WASHINGTON - Lanny R. White of Orem, Utah pleaded guilty in Salt Lake City federal district court to a felony charge of conspiracy to defraud the United States and to commit mail and wire fraud, in connection with the promotion of a tax and investment fraud scheme, the Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced today.

In April 2003, White, David J. Orr, attorneys Todd R. Cannon and Michael Behunin, and Certified Public Accountant (CPA) Max Lloyd were indicted for promoting and selling a fraudulent trust scheme to over 300 clients that defrauded the United States of millions of dollars in tax revenue. Today's guilty plea brings the number of individuals who have pleaded guilty in this case to 11, including four attorneys and one certified public accountant. “People who hold themselves out as licensed professionals and help others evade taxes do more than damage the reputation of honest professionals,” said Eileen J. O’Connor, Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Tax Division. “By defrauding the federal Treasury, they harm all honest taxpayers. The Department of Justice is working vigorously to prosecute these tax fraud promoters.”

According to the plea agreement, White admitted that from 1993 to 2004, he and his co-conspirators—using the names Advanta Strategies, World Contractual Services, Rockwell Services, CornerStone West, Ventures Limited, and Whiven Financial—marketed and sold a fraudulent trust scheme to over 300 clients through seminars, promotional materials, and opinion letters. White and his co-conspirators falsely represented to clients that by placing their businesses and assets into the names of trusts, the clients could lawfully eliminate or substantially reduce their income tax liabilities.

“Those who promote the use of abusive trusts and tax schemes for the purpose of evading taxes harm our system of taxation, harm many of their investors and are engaging in criminal activity,” said Nancy Jardini, IRS Chief, Criminal Investigations. ”We will continue to shut down fraudulent tax schemes and hold the promoters of these schemes accountable for their actions.”

White admitted that, as part of his role in the conspiracy, he falsely claimed to be a licensed CPA and used his brother's CPA license numbers, without his brother's knowledge. White also admitted to preparing opinion letters that falsely assured the legality of the tax benefits of the fraudulent trust scheme and that he promoted the scheme at offshore seminars hosted by the “Institute of Global Prosperity.” Several individuals associated with Global Prosperity have been convicted of felony tax charges in the Western District of Washington. White acknowledged that his actions, which resulted in the filing of more than 2,000 false and fraudulent federal income and trust tax returns, caused a loss of federal tax revenue totaling between $7 million and $10 million.

Additionally, White acknowledged that he and others conspired to use the U.S. mail and interstate wire communications to obtain over $5 million and property from clients through false and fraudulent misrepresentations. White also admitted to placing clients’ assets in unsound “investments” in international financial markets and other offshore “investing opportunities” that he knew would put the clients’ funds at considerable risk and would never, in fact, pay any return.

White faces a potential maximum sentence of five years in prison followed by up to three years of supervised release, a $250,000 fine and liability for the costs of prosecution. U.S. District Judge Ted Stewart scheduled sentencing for February 26, 2007.

Three-D televisions and paper-thin monitors that have so far been available in sci-fi movies are about to become a reality, as Samsung Electronics’ president predicts that those shown in the movie ``Minority Report’’ will be available within a few years.

``In the not so distant future, displays shown in the `Minority Report’ will appear,’’ Lee Sang-wan, the head of Samsung’s LCD division, told some 500 students during a lecture held at Yonsei University on Tuesday. He also said that Samsung aims to take more than a quarter of the $100-billion LCD market by 2010 by taking advantage of its technology leadership.

The remark came right after Samsung’s announcement that it has developed the thinnest liquid crystal display (LCD) panel ever reported, which is thinner than a credit card at 0.82 millimeters.

It was a counterattack on its rival LG.Philips LCD, which unveiled a 1.3-millimeter panel in September, which was the world’s slimmest at the time. Lee said that the intensifying battle for the ``world’s best’’ will eventually help bring those future gadgets into reality earlier than most people have expected.

``The display market is smaller than the semiconductor or mobile phone markets as of now. But it has unlimited growth potential,’’ Lee said. ``Korean makers like Samsung and LG.Philips have never lost our leadership in the display industry since we bypassed Japanese manufacturers in 1998.’’

In the 2002 movie, which depicted the future world of year 2054, John Anderton, played by Tom Cruise, and his fellow cops use various thin, transparent displays in their daily businesses of pursuing criminals. At home, Anderton uses a 3-D image projector in reminiscing of the days with his family.

In reality, Samsung’s latest LCD model is far smaller than Cruise’s. It is only available in 2.2 inches in the diagonal size, as it is designed for mobile phones. But its executives think the company is quite close to achieving larger models.

``Samsung’s R&D initiatives, including LCD module thickness reduction and reinforced shock resistance, will enable our customers to develop truly differentiated and more reliable, ultra-thin mobile products,’’ said executive Vice President Yun Jin-hyuk, in charge of the mobile display team of Samsung.

As for 3-D displays, LG Electronics has come quite close to the movie. During last month’s Korea Electronics Show, LG displayed a 40-inch TV that shows 3-D images without the need for special glasses.

``It is the first time for us to develop a 3D display for the naked eye,’’ LG’s public relations official manager Kim Kyung-hwan said. `` It may look a bit unusual but it feels alright when people’s eyes get accustomed to the 3D images,’’ he said, adding that the company aims to sell the display to commercial sites such as airports, exhibition centers and shopping malls.

Lee of Samsung also predicted paper-like flexible displays will become the next-generation standard. They were seen in ``Minority Report’’ as an electronic newspaper that updates its front page once in a while, and as a cereal box that has a video advertisement on its reverse side.

LG.Philips in a partnership with E-Ink of the United States is leading the flexible technology field with a 14.1-inch flexible e-book already available as a black-and-white prototype.

The Korean paper industry Thursday denied a claim made in the United States that it is unfairly receiving state subsidies and exporting its products at a low price.

Officials said that their products are sold in the U.S. at higher prices than in Korea, after NewPage Corporation, a leading paper manufacturer in the U.S., filed a complaint last month to the Department of Commerce, which decided to launch an anti-dumping and countervailing investigation into Korean, Chinese and Indonesian ``coated wood-free paper.’’

The value-added printing paper is generally used for the production of brochures, calendars and albums.

Seven Korean paper firms are being targeted by the investigation _ Hansol, EN Paper, Kyesung, Hongwon, Hankuk, Moorim and Namhan.

Contrary to the U.S. claim, the price of Korean papers sold in the U.S. is higher than those marketed in the country, said an official with Moorim Paper, which is monitoring the affair. ``Thus, U.S. anti-dumping measures are not applicable to Korea.’’

Unlike China and Indonesia which export their papers to the U.S. at a low price, Korea has priced its papers in the U.S. at a high level over the years due to weak domestic spending.

Korean papers were also caught in the middle of heavy competition amid low-priced Chinese products coming into the U.S.

The official believes that the U.S. has included Korea along with other Asian rivals in this antidumping matter for several reasons _ Korea is one of Asia’s big exporters to the U.S., and it would seem unfair just to investigate two Asian countries.

Additionally, since NewPage is losing its competitive edge in the U.S. market against the rising forces of Asian paper manufacturers, the company is trying to dump its low market share blame on them.

Last year, Korea shipped some 378,000 tons of writing and printing paper to the U.S., recording about $315 million in sales last year.

Sales of Korean paper reached $181 million in the first six months of this year.

Korean paper makes up the largest Asian share of total U.S. paper imports, accounting for about 26 percent, followed by China with 14 percent and Indonesia with 3 percent, according to the Trade Ministry in Seoul.

The country has been seeing its paper sales in the U.S. steadily rising since 2003.

Regarding the U.S. countervailing drive, industry officials said the Korean paper industry does not either receive special treatment or special subsidies as the U.S. claims.

``Like any other industry, when we do ask for government support, its a loan,’’ said the Moorim official. ``The U.S. countervailing probe on Korean papers is a direct challenge against Korea’s state policy.’’

He said the domestic paper industry will comply with the investigation in coordination with the Trade Ministry, while continuing to express Korea’s stance on the matter to the U.S.

Under the World Trade Organization regulations, the Department of Commerce has 18 months to decide whether to levy duties on Asian companies for alleged damages caused to the U.S. firm.

Robin Sheen
Staff Reporter