Gino Carlucci, Money Laundering and Tax Scheme, Arizona 2011

A Phoenix man has been sentenced to more than 15 years in prison for his role in conspiracies to commit money laundering and to defraud the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and for filing a false income tax return.

Gino Carlucci, 43, was sentenced to 188 months in prison by Chief Judge Kathryn H. Vratil of the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas, sitting in Phoenix by special designation. Carlucci was convicted of both conspiracies and the tax crime after an eight-day trial in July 2011.

According to the evidence presented at trial, Carlucci and his co-defendant, Wayne Mounts, stole large sums of money and assets from Joseph Flickinger, a tax return preparer in Ohio who had himself defrauded multiple clients of their life savings in a fraudulent investment scheme.

Carlucci and Mounts devised a scheme to have Flickinger arrested by federal officials, and then used the money for their own personal benefit. In addition to money, Carlucci and Mounts defrauded Flickinger out of several high-end vehicles and a condo near Lake Erie, Ohio, which they quickly sold for $210,000.

Carlucci had some of the funds transferred into bank accounts held in the name of his wife and father-in-law. Carlucci’s wife and Mounts withdrew more than $300,000 in cash over several months in increments of $10,000 or less so that they could avoid having the bank report their withdrawals to authorities.

Carlucci was also ordered to pay $893,716 in restitution to the victims in Flickinger’s case and to the IRS. Judge Vratil further entered a forfeiture order against Carlucci for a money judgment in the amount of $722,841.00.

Assistant Attorney General Kathryn Keneally commended the joint efforts from the special agents from IRS Criminal Investigation in Ohio and Arizona who investigated the case as well as Tax Division Trial Attorneys Richard Rolwing, Hayden Brockett, and Monica Edelstein, who prosecuted the case.

The case was investigated by special agents from IRS Criminal Investigation in Ohio and Arizona. Tax Division Trial Attorneys Richard Rolwing, Hayden Brockett, and Monica Edelstein prosecuted the case.

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