Immigration Consultant’s Tax Trial Starts

An immigration consultant accused of funneling illicit contributions to the 1996 Clinton-Gore campaign appeared in Los Angeles federal court Thursday to face trial on charges of income tax fraud.

In opening remarks to the jury, a prosecutor accused Maria L. Hsia of San Marino of failing to file a personal income tax return for 1994, filing false personal returns for 1995 and 1996 and aiding and assisting in the filing of a false return for her business.

The defendant’s attorney denied the charges, blaming Hsia’s former accountant for any wrongdoing.

Before he was interrupted by the judge, defense lawyer Kenneth Barish tried to suggest that the government is going out of its way to prosecute Hsia because of the pending campaign finance case.

U.S. District Judge Richard A. Paez stopped Barish twice, calling his comments argumentative.

The campaign finance and the tax cases are being prosecuted by the Justice Department’s campaign financing task force, which was established to look into allegations of illegal fund-raising during the 1996 national political campaign.

Hsia was accused of funneling campaign dollars from unidentified sources through monks and nuns at the Hsi Lai Buddhist Temple in Hacienda Heights. Vice President Al Gore attended a fund-raiser there in 1996.

Hsia also was accused of using the monks and nuns to launder contributions to Don Knabe’s successful 1996 race for Los Angeles County supervisor, the 1994 reelection campaign of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) and the 1996 reelection effort of his son, Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy (D-R.I.).

Most of those charges have since been thrown out by a federal judge.

In the tax trial, prosecutor Greg Tortella told the jury that Hsia deliberately provided her tax preparer, Richard Tsai, with false information and diverted money from her immigration consulting business, Hsia & Associates, to cheat the Internal Revenue Service.

When Tsai came up with a tax estimate she didn’t like, Hsia told him, “I can’t pay that much in taxes,” Tortella said, and then hired another tax preparer.

Barish pinned all blame on Tsai, who he said also controlled Hsia’s business and personal checking accounts.

“Maria Hsia is a people person,” the lawyer told jurors. “She trusted an accountant who made a lot of mistakes. And rather than take responsibility for those mistakes, he spun a tale to the government.”

If convicted on all the tax charges, Hsia could receive up to 10 years in prison and a fine of $850,000.