Update: On Oct. 17, 2022, Federal judge Cathy Seibel sentenced Saaed Moslem, 39, to 96 months in prison and ordered him to pay a $200,000 fine and forfeit $1.9 million. Mehdi Moslem, 73, was sentenced to 40 months in prison and ordered to pay a $100,000 fine and forfeit $1.04 million in restitution. The men have claimed that the trial was tainted by prosecutorial and judicial misconduct, and they have appealed their verdicts.
A father-son team who ran Exclusive Motor Sports, a used car lot in Central Valley, were convicted June 3 in federal court in White Plains for cheating banks and the IRS.
From 2009 through 2018, Mehdi “Mike” Moslem, 72, and Saaed Moslem, 37, fabricated tax returns and fed banks false financial information, according to court records. Saaed Moslem also forged a customer”™s tax return and hid assets from creditors.
Both were convicted of defrauding the Internal Revenue Service and conspiracy to commit bank fraud, in a two-week trial. Saaed Moslem was also convicted of aggravated identity theft and bankruptcy fraud.
The Moslems gave their accountant ”“ identified in court documents only as CC-1, using the acronym for a co-conspirator ”“ bogus information for Exclusive Motor Sports’ federal tax form. They devalued inventory and gross receipts, according to a superseding indictment, and overstated deductions.
The accountant also prepared their personal tax returns, underreporting income from Exclusive, rental properties and other businesses, such as Quality Homes of Hudson Valley.
In some years, according to the superseding indictment, they did not file tax returns for businesses they owned.
When applying for bank loans, the Moslems used the opposite strategy: inflating the value of real estate assets and omitting tax liabilities, to exaggerate their net worth.
Inflated net worth statements were used on loan applications to Hudson Valley Federal Credit Union, $1.5 million; Riverside Bank, $1.16 million; Walden Bank, $500,000; Bank of America, $415,000; Salisbury Bank, $125,378; Noah Bank, $110,000; and to Melrose Credit Union.
Saaed Moslem submitted a car loan application to Mid-Hudson Valley Federal Credit Union that included a fabricated tax return and a forged signature, without the customer”™s knowledge, that inflated the customer”™s income.
Saaed Moslem filed a Chapter 7 bankruptcy petition in 2015, declaring $497,243 in assets and $985,473 in liabilities. He directed the accountant to transfer his ownership in Exclusive Motor Sports to his father, according to the superseding indictment, and backdate the transaction to a year before the bankruptcy petition was filed, to conceal his ownership.
He told his accountant that he “had to file for bankruptcy,” according to the superseding indictment, “to get rid of a mortgage.”
He also concealed financial interests in three properties in Cornwall and in Quality Homes, in bankruptcy schedules, and understated his income.
The Moslems are scheduled for sentencing on Oct. 1, before U.S. District Judge Cathy Seibel.
