March 24, 11

NEWS / Second Caesars Palace Nightclub Host Pleads Guilty to Tax Crime

WASHINGTON – Ali “Shawn” Olyaie, a former “VIP host” at the Pure Nightclub located in Caesars Palace Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, pleaded guilty in Las Vegas before U.S. District Court Judge Kent Dawson to one count of filing a false federal individual income tax return for the 2006 tax year, the Justice Department and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced today.

According to information disclosed at Olyaie’s plea hearing, during the years 2005 and 2006, Olyaie’s responsibilities as a VIP host at the Pure Nightclub included promoting the club, booking reservations and catering to the club’s clientele. In addition to paying an admissions fee, some Pure patrons typically made cash payments to Pure door personnel and VIP hosts to bypass the general admissions line and to obtain more desirable seating inside the nightclub. The cash payments were collected, pooled and generally distributed on a weekly basis to Pure managers, door personnel and VIP hosts, including Olyaie. Olyaie’s cash distributions from the pool of money collected from patrons of Pure comprised the bulk of his compensation during the time he worked at Pure. Olyaie concealed the cash payments he received by not reporting the income to the IRS on his individual income tax returns during the years he worked at the Pure Nightclub.

Judge Dawson set Olyaie’s sentencing for June 29, 2011, at 9:00 a.m.

On Nov. 9, 2010, Richard Chu, another former VIP Host at the Pure Nightclub, pleaded guilty to filing a false 2006 federal individual income tax return that did not report the cash payments he received at Pure. Chu is also awaiting sentencing.

This case is being investigated by IRS – Criminal Investigation and is being prosecuted by Tax Division Trial Attorneys Christopher J. Maietta and Joseph A. Rillotta.

http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2011/March/11-tax-368.html

Tags: criminal investigation,