Las Vegas Valley businessmen, ex-NFL player indicted

By Cara McCoy

Published Thursday, Jan. 29, 2009 | 3:06 p.m.

Updated Thursday, Jan. 29, 2009 | 4:16 p.m.

A former NFL punter, a former Henderson casino owner and a Las Vegas businessmen were indicted Thursday by a federal grand jury for tax fraud, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

The men were arrested for their roles in the promotion of a fraudulent tax product through the now-defunct National Audit Defense Network (NADN), the Justice Department and Internal Revenue Service said.

According to the indictment, in 2001, NADN began selling tax services through Tax Break 2000, a Web site that promised customers could claim income tax credits and deductions under the Americans with Disabilities Act. That claim, according to the indictment, was fraudulent because Tax Break 2000 tried to abuse a provision of the ADA that provides a "disabled access credit." The credit is supposed to be used to offset expenses incurred by small businesses working to comply with the ADA's requirement that facilities be accessible to he disabled.

Joseph Prokop, 48, who played three seasons with the New York Jets before joining the San Francisco 49ers, Miami Dolphins and New York Giants, was arrested in Los Angeles Wednesday morning. He has a detention hearing in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles on Friday and will be arraigned in Las Vegas at 3 p.m. next Thursday.

Alan Rodrigues, a former pit boss and casino owner from Henderson, was arrested Wednesday morning in Las Vegas. He appeared in U.S. District Court Wednesday afternoon and pleaded not guilty to the charges, the U.S. attorney's office said. He was released pending trial, which is scheduled for April 7.

The arrest warrant for Weston Coolidge, a Las Vegas businessman, is outstanding, the attorney's office said.

According to the indictment, Rodrigues was the general manager of NADN and Coolidge was its chairman and president. Prokop was the national marketing director of Oryan Management and Financial Services, a company that the indictment alleges is a sole proprietorship operating in Upland, Calif., that paid NADN a commission to sell Tax Break 2000.

The men have been charged with one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States, 15 counts of aiding in the preparation of false tax returns, and five counts of mail fraud. If convicted, they face maximum potential sentences of 150 years in prison and millions of dollars in fines.

NADN's office was located at 4330 S. Valley View Blvd. in Las Vegas. The office closed in May 2004, after the Justice Department filed an injunction. A federal bankruptcy court issued a permanent injunction in June 2004, and further bankruptcy action against NADN in Nevada is pending, the attorney's office said.

Tax Break 2000 was advertised as a personal "Internet mall" for people with disabilities. Customers paid $10,475 to modify the Web sites they purchased to "comply" with the ADA and were told that by paying for this modification every year they could claim a $5,000 ADA tax credit and a $5,475 business tax deduction.

The customers were asked to sign promissory notes for about 80 percent of the $10,475 purchase; however, it was never expected that the customers would make payments, the indictment says.

In addition, the indictment says, the men paid attorneys to write favorable opinions about Tax Break 2000 in response to NADN's own tax experts' determination that Tax Break 2000 was illegal. The defendants also created false IRS 1099 forms to give the appearance that customer's Web sites were generating income on commission.

According to the indictment, from 2001 to 2004, Tax Break 2000 was sold about 21,610 times to customers across the country.

The defunct National Audit Defense Network was founded in 1994 by Cort Christie and Robert Bennington. Bennington committed suicide in June 2004 after the initial investigation into the company's possible schemes began.