How did "Never Again" become this, a license to soak and dupe others hiding behind "Holocaust Survivor"?
New Jersey millionaire sentenced to 1 1/2 years for tax fraud; had come under fire for violin sale
nj.com
3/21/2005, 6:07 p.m. ET
By BONNIE PFISTER
The Associated Press
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — A millionaire who came under fire for selling rare but overvalued musical instruments to the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra was sentenced to 1 1/2 years in prison Monday as part of a plea deal in an unrelated tax case.
Herbert Axelrod also must pay a $40,000 fine for helping a former employee file a fraudulent federal tax return, a charge to which he pleaded guilty in December. As part of his plea agreement, Axelrod also must file a 2003 tax return, taking no deduction for the sale of 30 stringed instruments to the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. The tax filing had been delayed pending the outcome of the case.
Last April, Axelrod was accused of depositing $775,000 for a former employee into Swiss bank accounts to hide the money from the government. A few months earlier, Axelrod had turned down a plea deal to lesser charges, and was out of the country when the indictment came down, said his lawyer, Michael B. Himmel.
The tycoon-turned-fugitive traveled to Cuba and then Europe before he was arrested in June in Berlin.
His voice sometimes breaking, the 77-year-old defendant apologized Monday for not returning to the United States to face those charges, calling it "biggest mistake of my life."
Axelrod said he foolishly shunned Himmel's advice to accept the earlier plea, fearing the then-remote chance of jail time and separation from his wife of 50 years. Himmel said Evelyn Axelrod now lives in Zurich.
"I was scared of going to jail," he said. "The irony is that by my stupid and wrongful acts, I ended up in the very place I tried so hard to avoid."
Axelrod made his fortune selling products such as the popular Nylabone line of dog toys and running TFH Publications, which specializes in books on animals and pets.
An avid music patron, Axelrod in 2003 sold a collection of rare stringed instruments to the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra for $17 million. At the time he said the 30 violins, violas and cellos __ some dating from the 17th century and crafted by Antonio Stradivari __ were worth $49 million.
But several experts have since questioned that valuation. In December, an internal orchestra panel found that for tax purposes, the instruments should be valued at the purchase price, not $49 million. The panel said the orchestra erred in taking Axelrod's word for the value, and not seeking an independent appraisal.
Prosecutors had asked for a 12- to 18-month sentence, while Axelrod's lawyer argued that he be imprisoned for a year.
Axelrod could be released later this year if the Bureau of Prisons gives him credit for time served. He spent five months in a Berlin jail awaiting extradition, and another 4 1/2 months in the Monmouth County jail. He also was sentenced to a year of supervised release after his time is served, and must open his financial statements to scrutiny.
Axelrod requested he be jailed at the federal prison at Fort Dix. But a Superior Court judge wants to keep him in Monmouth County, where he is expected to face a civil trial starting in April over a dispute with the California company that bought TFH in 1997.
****While Axelrod made his fortune on TFH, it was as a philanthropist that he'd hoped to be remembered. He helped fund a cancer research program at Jersey Shore Medical Center, and a 500-seat performing arts center in Ocean Township.
Axelrod said that legacy is no longer possible.
"Instead, I will be remembered as a man who disrespected his country, his government and this court," he said. "I apologize."
***With who's money? |
