2 O.C. Men Sentenced in Scam Involving B-1 Parts
The owner of one of Southern California’s largest defense subcontractors and one of his employees--who were both convicted of overcharging the government for parts of the B-1 bomber--were sentenced to prison Tuesday for inventing a tax scam to hide those illegal profits.
Joseph Kasparoff, 55, of Encino, the owner of two Montebello aerospace firms, was sentenced to six months in prison; Harold C. Geyer, 71, of Brea, who was Kasparoff’s messenger, was ordered imprisoned for three months.
Another man involved in the scheme, Frank Calta, 40, of Orange, was also sentenced Tuesday. He received six months in prison.
U.S. District Judge Robert M. Takasugi imposed longer sentences on the defendants but suspended most of the prison time.
Takasugi also imposed a $250,000 fine on Kasparoff and a $20,000 fine on Calta and ordered all three to repay delinquent taxes, interest and penalties to the Internal Revenue Service, said Assistant U.S. Atty. Steven G. Madison. In Kasparoff’s case, that could reach $3 million, Madison said.
The tax charges sprang from a defense fraud carried out in the mid-1980s at one of Kasparoff’s companies, Super K, which had a contract with Rockwell International to build bulkheads for the B-1.
In April, a federal jury in Los Angeles convicted Kasparoff, Geyer and Kasparoff’s nephew, John P. Kasparoff of Newport Beach, who was Super K’s general manager, of overbilling the Air Force by about $1.3 million for two B-1 bulkheads. The three were placed on probation, Madison said.
In a related case in November, Joseph Kasparoff and Geyer pleaded guilty to conspiracy and tax fraud in the overbilling scheme. John Kasparoff was not named in that case.
In 1983-86, Joseph Kasparoff had Geyer and Calta cash checks from Super K and his other firm, J.K. Precision Machining Inc., and return the money to him, then he deducted the payments from his taxes as business expenses, Madison said.
Geyer also prepared phony invoices to back up the checks, he said.
The system laundered money that came from Super K’s overcharges on the B-1 contract, Madison said, and it created the impression that Geyer and Calta were performing services related to the contract.
Calta, a business acquaintance of Kasparoff, pleaded guilty in October to conspiracy for cashing $1 million in checks made out to fictitious third parties and returning the money to Kasparoff.
