Granada Hills Man Sentenced in Tax Evasion

A Granada Hills businessman has been sentenced to 18 months in prison on six counts of tax evasion stemming from a scheme to avoid paying $2 million in federal excise taxes on the sale of diesel fuel, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office.

Larry Meyer, 63, also was ordered by U.S. District Judge Mariana R. Pfaelzer to serve five years probation after pleading guilty to charges arising from a failure to pay the required 15 cents a gallon excise tax on sales of 14 million gallons of diesel fuel.

From 1986 through 1988, Meyer owned several front companies that operated at least 16 gas stations in Southern and Central California, according to Assistant U.S. Atty. Jeffrey C. Eglash. The front companies were Baloy Garcia Texaco, which operated service stations in Venice and North Hollywood; Karin’s Korner, which operated a station in the Central California community of Earlimart; and Lovely Lady Oil, which operated stations in Long Beach and Rialto.

The government charged that Meyer used third parties--his wife, two sons, a daughter-in-law and a 13-year-old stepson--to conceal his ownership of the companies, Eglash said.

Meyer’s son, Michael Goldberg, previously pleaded guilty to two counts of filing a false tax return and was sentenced to eight months in custody, including four months of home detention. Steven Goldberg pleaded guilty to two counts of failing to file tax returns and was sentenced to three months of home confinement.

Steven Goldberg’s ex-wife, Pamela Anderson, entered a similar plea and was placed on three years probation.

Eglash called Meyer’s sentence a “significant penalty in a tax case.”