HONOLULU (AP) — A Hawaii car dealer has pleaded guilty to federal tax charges in a deal that could lead to his having to testify against his 85-year-old father, a newspaper said Saturday. HONOLULU (AP) — A Hawaii car dealer
HONOLULU (AP) — A Hawaii car dealer has pleaded guilty to federal tax charges in a deal that could lead to his having to testify against his 85-year-old father, a newspaper said Saturday.
Alan Pflueger pleaded guilty Friday to filing a tax return with unreported income in 2005, telling U.S. District Judge Leslie E. Kobayashi “I take full responsibility.”
Pflueger agreed to cooperate in the prosecution of co-defendants, which could include his father James Pflueger, in exchange for a possible reduced sentence.
The senior Pflueger, who has made news for a separate case involving seven deaths over a broken dam on his property, is charged with conspiracy, filing false income tax returns and depositing $14 million from a 2007 California land sale in a Swiss bank account to avoid having to report it.
“If called to testify, he’ll testify truthfully,” Alan Pflueger’s lawyer William McCorriston told the Star-Advertiser. “If asked about his father, he’ll answer. But no one should make any assumptions about what that testimony will be.”
Randall Ken Kurata, chief financial officer for the family’s company Pflueger, Inc., also pleaded guilty Friday to filing a false corporate income tax return.
Kurata and Alan Pflueger could each get three years in prison, $250,000 in fines and mandatory restitution. Kurata is scheduled for sentencing in December, Alan Pflueger in January.
James Pflueger is also awaiting trial on manslaughter charges in the deaths of seven people swept from their homes after a century-old earthen dam broke on his property on Kauai’s North Shore in 2006. The trial is scheduled to start next year.
