Milwaukee Business Owner Sentenced for $5.4 Million Tax Fraud Conspiracy |
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Topics: WI Automotive T.R.U.S.T., Tedmund Blankschein
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U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Wisconsin
12 February 2020
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
United States Attorney Matthew D. Krueger of the Eastern District of Wisconsin announced that on February 10, 2020, the Honorable Lynn Adelman sentenced Tedmund Blankschein (age: 51) to 15 months imprisonment followed by three years of supervised release for conspiracy to commit tax fraud. Blankschein was also ordered to pay $5.4 million in restitution to the IRS, joint and several with his co-conspirator, Albert Golant, aka “Alex Golant.”
Blankschein previously plead guilty to conspiring to defraud the United States by impeding the Internal Revenue Service in connection with his and Albert Golant’s luxury vehicle brokerage businesses, WI Automotive T.R.U.S.T.; Lease, Registration, and Consulting LLC; and DOT Automotive of WI LLC, from at least May 2013 to May 2017. Blankschein and Golant were in the business of purchasing luxury vehicles in the United States and selling them at a substantial profit to overseas buyers, typically in China.
Both Blankschein and Golant had control over multiple business and personal bank accounts they used to divert corporate receipts which were supposed to be used to purchase specific luxury vehicles. Blankschein and Golant used the diverted funds to gamble and to purchase personal items such as expensive jewelry, which they concealed from their accountant. Instead, Golant falsely told the accountant that the funds were used to purchase luxury vehicles and should be deducted as expenses on their tax returns. As a result, the tax returns prepared by their accountant substantially overstated business expenses and underreported income by more than $12 million, generating a tax loss to the United States of more than $5.4 million.
This matter was investigated by the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigations and the Federal Bureau of Investigation and was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Laura S. Kwaterski.