Mendoza

I. Background

Mendoza’s conviction was based on two income-tax returns that underreported his income. Mendoza worked for a management company in Los Angeles, California called Nobel Marketing Company where he was in charge of admin- istering Nobel Medical Clinic. As the administrator, Mendoza was authorized to deposit clients’ checks into the clinic’s bank accounts, but he was not a signatory on the accounts.

During 1989 and 1990, Mendoza embezzled approximately $285,000 from the clinic by personally collecting some of the clinic’s checks and depositing them into his own bank accounts or cashing the checks at a check-cashing company. The money from these transactions was not reported on his 1989 or 1990 tax returns.

During the Internal Revenue Service’s (“IRS”) investiga- tion of Mendoza’s failure to report the money on his income UNITED STATES v. MENDOZA 7123 tax returns, Mendoza left the United States and went to the Philippines. On June 19, 1995, prior to Mendoza’s departure from the United States, IRS Special Agent Slotsve attempted to serve Mendoza with a Grand Jury subpoena for handwrit- ing and fingerprint exemplars by serving the subpoena on Mendoza’s…