United States Attorney John C. Richter

Western District of Oklahoma

February 5, 2009

CONTACT: Bob Troester

                405/553-8999

OWNERS OF UNDERGROUND CABLING

COMPANY SENTENCED TO PRISON FOR TAX CRIME

  Oklahoma City, Oklahoma – John C. Richter, United States Attorney for the Western District of Oklahoma, announced today that James E. Newman, 54, Quanah K. Newman, 54, and Glenda J. Robertson, 56, all of Oklahoma City, have been sentenced to prison for submitting a false federal partnership income tax return.  All three are former owners of Terra Tech, LLC, an Oklahoma City company that installed underground cables for utilities and other businesses.

On July 16, 2008, each defendant pled guilty to willfully causing a Terra Tech partnership income tax return to be delivered to the Internal Revenue Service that contained materially false information.  In particular, they admitted that they caused a 2002 partnership return to be filed with the knowledge that the amount reported as Terra Tech’s gross receipts – $5,121,515.00 – was false.  The crime involved the diversion of certain gross receipts of Terra Tech into personal bank accounts and the exclusion of those gross receipts from both the partnership tax returns and the defendants’ personal tax returns.

Today, James E. Newman was sentenced to twelve months in prison, to be followed by a year of supervised release.  He was also ordered to pay a fine of $4,000.00 and to pay restitution to the IRS in the amount of $117,785.97.  He remains subject to penalties and interest that may be imposed by the IRS civilly. 

Also today, Quanah K. Newman and Glenda J. Robertson were each ordered to serve five months in prison, to be followed by five months of home confinement.  They will also be required to serve a year of supervised release, which must include 104 hours of community service.

        These charges are the result of an investigation conducted by the Criminal Investigation Division of the Internal Revenue Service and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.  The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Scott E. Williams and N. Ross Lillard III.