false tax return plead by former Hawthorne School Board member

 

LOS ANGELES COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY'S OFFICE
MEDIA RELATIONS DIVISION

STEVE COOLEY District Attorney JOSEPH SCOTT Director
JOHN K. SPILLANE Chief Deputy District Attorney SANDI GIBBONS P.I.O.
JANE ROBISON News Secretary
SHIARA M. DÁVILA Asst. P.I.O.

18-1112 Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center
210 West Temple Street
Los Angeles, CA 90012
(213) 974-3525

Nov. 12, 2008

Former Hawthorne School Board member pleads to filing false tax return

LOS ANGELES – Former Hawthorne School Board member Frank Desimone pleaded guilty today to evading state taxes by not reporting $400,000 in income from a DJ business between 2003 and 2006, the District Attorney's office announced.

Deputy District Attorney Max Huntsman of the Public Integrity Division said Desimone was placed on five years of supervised probation by Superior Court Judge George G. Lomeli. During that period, Desimone, 34, may neither hold nor seek public office, Huntsman said.

Desimone also paid $50,000 in remaining restitution to the court as part of his sentence. His family, who reportedly partnered him in his business, already paid $29,000 of the $79,000 restitution, the prosecutor said.

As part of a negotiated settlement of the case, remaining charges of tax evasion, perjury and filing a false document were dismissed after Desimone was sentenced. The tax count to which he pleaded involved his 2004 state return. He was charged in separate counts for 2005, 2006 and 2007 state tax returns.

Desimone was indicted by the Los Angeles County Grand Jury in March, culminating an investigation that began in 2005 into allegations that Desimone had secretly married and moved out of the Hawthorne School District.

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Sandi Gibbons, Public Information Officer
Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office
Criminal Justice Center
210 W. Temple St., 18th Floor
Los Angeles CA 90012
Phone: 213-974-3528
Email address: sandi@da.lacounty.gov