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Gordian Ndubizu, 69, of Princeton Junction, was found guilty on Thursday, Aug. 15 of four counts of tax evasion and four counts of filing false tax returns, New Jersey's U.S. Attorney Philip Sellinger said in a news release. The jury deliberated for about two hours following the four-day trial in federal court.
According to court documents and evidence, Nudbizu was an accounting professor at Drexel University and a co-owner of Health Care Pharmacy between the tax years 2014 and 2017. The pharmacy was an S corporation and its income flowed through Ndubizu and his wife, and needed to be reported on their personal income tax returns.
Ndubizu prepared falsified tax records, inflating the pharmacy's costs of items sold and underreporting the pharmacy's profits.
"In the fraudulent books and records, among other things, Ndubizu identified certain wire transfers as payments to purchase goods sold by the pharmacy when these wire transfers were in fact made to personal bank accounts under Ndubizu’s control and to bank accounts in Nigeria associated with an automotive company under Ndubizu’s control," Sellinger said.
Ndubizu's tax returns from 2014 through 2017 underreported his income and falsely claimed he had no financial interest or authority over any foreign bank accounts. He didn't report about $3.28 million in pharmacy income and evaded about $1.25 million in taxes.
Ndubizu faces up to five years in prison for each tax evasion count, three years for each false tax return count, and fines of up to $250,000.
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