Two Arizona Men Sentenced to Prison for Elaborate Securities and Tax Fraud Scheme

On March 3, 2009, in Phoenix, Ariz., Ira W. Gentry Jr., of Scottsdale, Ariz. and Randy W. Jenkins, of Glendale, Ariz., were sentenced to 180 months in prison and 90 months in prison, respectively.

In September 2008, Gentry and Jenkins were convicted of securities and tax fraud relative to an elaborate scheme to defraud UniDyn Corporation’s investors, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). As part of the sentence, Gentry and Jenkins were also ordered to forfeit assets that they acquired by virtue of their crimes, including a 2006 Mercedes Benz and approximately $2 million in cash from various accounts and investments.

In addition, the court entered a money judgment against the pair in the amount of $9,469,841. Gentry was ordered to pay $3,300, and Jenkins $2,100, in court imposed financial assessments. According to the indictment and evidence presented at trial, Gentry was the CEO and a member of UniDyn Corporation’s board of directors. Gentry conspired with Jenkins, a disbarred Arizona attorney, to secretly acquire approximately 20 million shares of UniDyn stock. They then artificially inflated the value of the stock through the filing of misleading UniDyn SEC filings, through the filing of false corporate income tax returns, and through the issuance of false and misleading press releases. In order to conceal their activities, Gentry and Jenkins used aliases, offshore nominee entities, Canadian brokerage accounts, nominee bank accounts and false tax identification numbers.

From December 1997 through April 2003, Gentry and Jenkins sold more than 3.9 million shares of UniDyn common stock held in nominee names for more than $9 million. Gentry and Jenkins used the illegal proceeds to purchase assets in the name of nominee entities including a $1.2 million Scottsdale residence, a $139,000 Mercedes, a $62,000 custom Trans Am and $300,000 in gold and silver coins. Neither Gentry nor Jenkins reported the income they earned from the stock sales to the IRS. The tax loss associated with the scheme exceeded $1.5 million.

http://www.irs.gov/compliance/enforcement/article/0,,id=187268,00.html