Former Oregon Chemical Company Executive Sentenced for Filing False Tax Returns

WASHINGTON — The U.S. District Court in Portland, Ore., today sentenced a former Oregon chemical company executive to serve 18 months in prison and to pay a $50,000 criminal fine following his conviction on two counts of filing false U.S. federal income tax returns, the Department of Justice announced. The executive was also sentenced to pay restitution for all taxes due, which will be determined by the Internal Revenue Service.

Trevor Smith, the former vice president of sales for Raisio Western North America, was convicted of filing false U.S. federal income tax returns for tax years 1999 and 2000. While employed at Raisio, Smith received approximately $350,000 in kickback payments from the former general manager of Chemical Products Technologies (CPT), based in Cartersville, Ga., relating to Raisio’s purchases of dry anthraquinone. Anthraquinone is a pulping additive used to increase pulp yield. Smith, a resident of Lake Oswego, Ore., did not report the receipt of that kickback income on his U.S. federal income tax returns for 1999 and 2000. After a jury trial, Smith was convicted of both counts on March 1, 2007.

The charges against Smith were the third to arise out of an investigation in the Northern District of Georgia and the District of Oregon conducted by the Antitrust Division’s Atlanta Field Office, with the assistance of the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division. In June 2005, Patrick Crowe III pleaded guilty to a two-count felony charge for his participation in two conspiracies to commit mail fraud and deprive CPT of the honest services of its employees. Crowe was sentenced to four months in prison, to two months in a halfway house, and to pay restitution to CPT in the amount of $52,130. In March 2006, John R. Olsen pleaded guilty to two separate conspiracies to commit mail fraud and deprive CPT of the honest services of its employees and to two counts of filing false U.S. federal income tax returns. Olsen is awaiting sentencing.

Anyone with information concerning price fixing, bid rigging, tax offenses, or other offenses in the anthraquinone or glyphosate (a herbicide used to control grasses and weeds) industries should contact the Atlanta Field Office of the Antitrust Division at 404-331-7100.