This is a news release from the U.S. Dept. of Justice, dated August 3, 1999.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - A Salt Lake City businessman agreed today to plead guilty to a misdemeanor criminal tax violation stemming from a scheme in which he helped the son of an International Olympic Committee member obtain lawful permanent resident status by offering the son a fraudulent job at his company, the Justice Department announced.

According to a plea agreement, filed today in U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City, David E. Simmons admitted to entering into a series of sham contracts and using phony invoices to conceal the fact that the son's salary was actually being funded by the Salt Lake City Olympic Bid Committee, as well as the son himself. The plea agreement indicates that Simmons employed the son "for the purpose of influencing his father's vote in favor of awarding the Olympic Winter Games to Salt Lake City."

In a criminal information, filed together with the plea agreement, Simmons, formerly the Chairman and Chief Executive officer of Keystone Communications, Inc., is charged with causing the company to submit a 1992 tax return that falsely deducted the salary of the "employee" as a business expense. In fact, according to the plea agreement, Simmons knew that the amounts paid to the son "were not genuine salary payments, but were instead payments made under a sham employment arrangement designed to enable the [son] to attain lawful permanent resident status..."

Last December, the Justice Department launched an investigation into allegations of improprieties in connection with the Salt Lake City Olympic bid. Today's charge is the first arising out of that ongoing probe. The investigation is being conducted by prosecutors from the Fraud and Public Integrity Sections of the Criminal Division at the Justice Department, and by the FBI, along with agents from the Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. Customs Service.

Under the plea agreement, which must still be approved by the court, Simmons will cooperate fully with the ongoing investigation. The tax charge carries a maximum sentence of one year in prison, a $10,000 fine, or both.

The criminal information reveals that Keystone put the son on its payroll for almost two years, at an initial salary of $50,000 per year, which was increased to more than $70,000 per year. In turn, Keystone was reimbursed through a variety of schemes, including consulting services Keystone never performed and video services Keystone never provided.