SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, Dec. 14, 2017 (Gephardt Daily) — A Salt Lake City man was sentenced on Thursday after his conviction on charges of selling firearms without a license and under-reporting his income to the IRS by more than $10 million.
Adam Michael Webber was sentenced to four years in prison, according to a statement from the U.S. Department of Justice.
U.S. District Court Judge Dee Benson also ordered Webber to serve three years of supervised release.
In addition, Webber paid $1,817,887.05 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service prior to sentencing, and he was ordered to pay a $100,000 fine.
According to the DOJ statement, in 2007, Webber had reached an agreement with government officials that barred him from applying for a federal firearms license or engaging in the business of dealing firearms.
But federal officials say Webber did not stop.
According to evidence presented in court, Webber was the sole owner of HK Parts in 2007 and 2008. The business sold gun parts over the Internet and, in 2008, began selling complete firearms. He also illegally sold firearms from the basement of his residence, the statement said.
In addition, Webber sold firearms without a license under the auspices of a company owned by another Utah resident between 2009 and 2012, the statement said.
Webber was charged after May of 2012, when he reportedly sold firearms to undercover agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
A search warrant served on Webber’s residence found approximately $180,000 in cash, a 70-pound silver bar, silver coins, and firearms.
Regarding the income tax fraud, the statement said that between 2007 and 2010, Webber earned more than $10 million in gross receipts from the sale of illegal firearms and his firearm parts business.
For those years, he reported only a total of $183,397 in gross receipts, under-reporting his earnings on his 2007, 2008 and 2009 individual income tax returns and under-reporting gross receipts on his 2009 and 2010 corporate tax returns.
In 2010, Webber paid $670,000 in cash for a new home in Salt Lake County.
Webber was convicted by a jury of the tax offenses in September 2016 and later pleaded guilty to the firearms count. He agreed to forfeit more than 300 seized firearms.
