Bribery, tax evasion land Newbury Park man in federal prison

He included payoffs as business expenses on taxes

A Newbury Park man has been ordered to spend two years in a federal penitentiary for paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes to Los Angeles County officials to secure contracts for his telecommunications company.

Enrique Contreras, 40, pleaded guilty in May 2019 to one count of bribery and one count of subscribing to a false tax return; he was sentenced July 27 in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.

Ahead of his prison sentence, Contreras paid around $820,000 in restitution, $600,000 to the County of L.A. and another $220,000 to the United States Treasury for underpaying his taxes.

“To secure lucrative contracts from the Los Angeles County government for his Lancaster-based low-voltage electrical wiring company, Tel Pro Voice & Data, Inc., Contreras bribed two county officials with payments totaling $600,000,” the DOJ said in a statement released this week. “Then, in an effort to conceal the bribes and lower Tel Pro’s taxable income, Contreras falsely claimed that some of the bribe payments, along with other personal expenses, were legitimate business expenses.”

The two officials who accepted Contreras’ money were Mohammad Tirmazi, 51, of Alta Loma and Thomas Shepos, 71, of Palmdale. Both have pleaded guilty.

Tirmazi worked in the county’s internal service department and Shepos in its real estate division.

From 2013 to 2016, Contreras paid Shepos between $200,000 and $300,000 in exchange for non-public information and help in securing county contracts. Tirmazi took another $300,000.

Last month, Tirmazi was sentenced to one year and one day in federal prison.

Shepos pleaded guilty in November 2018 and is scheduled to learn his punishment in December.

Tel Pro’s list of clients included the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, Los Angeles County Probation Department, Los Angeles Fire Department and the Los Angeles County Department of Public Social Services.

Acorn staff report