An Indian American businessman was found guilty of tax evasion and bribery

According to the Department of Justice, an Indian American businessman who engaged in bribery and tax fraud has been “sentenced to 18 months’ probation and 200 hours of community service.”

One of the many intricate and protracted bribery schemes led by co-conspirators Anthony Merritt of Capitol Heights, Maryland, and Vincent Slater, a former manager of the DC Office of Tax and Revenue (OTR), included Arman Amirshahi, 46.

Four company owners—Amirshahi, Charles Zhou, Andre De Moya, and Davoud Jafari—paid cash bribes to Slater to promote the scams by avoiding their business taxes via Merritt acting as a middleman.

According to a Friday press release, Merritt, a former worker for the DC Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs, presented himself to the company owners as a license and permit expediter and introduced them to the plan.

Merritt conducted conversations with the company owners in exchange for a portion of the bribe money.

Merritt falsely lowered their obligations or acted on their behalf inside OTR while he conveyed their cash bribe payments to Slater and let Slater to seem distant from them.

After more than five years of work on each program, Slater resigned from OTR in December 2017.

The Department of Justice said that the co-conspirators’ conduct cost the District of Columbia around $3 million.

Because of their involvement in this behavior, each defendant received a conviction.

In January and February of 2019, respectively, Amirshahi and Zhou entered guilty pleas to charges of bribery.

2019 saw the filing of two indictments: one charging Slater, De Moya, and Merritt, and the other charging Slater, Jafari, and Merritt.

In June 2020, Slater entered a guilty post-indictment plea.

A jury found De Moya and Merritt guilty of conspiracy, bribery, and wire fraud in June 2023.

Merritt entered a guilty plea to the second indictment against him in September of 2023.

The jury found Jafari guilty of conspiracy, bribery, and wire fraud in October 2023.

Merritt’s primary involvement in enabling the various plots resulted in a 110-month jail term.

De Moya was sentenced to thirty months, Slater to twenty-seven months, and Jafari to twenty-four months for their individual roles.

Zhou received a five-year probationary sentence after becoming the first co-conspirator to collaborate with the authorities.