
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, September 14, 1994                   TAG: 9409150019
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: B-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

FORMER U.S. TREASURER GETS PRISON TIME FOR TAX EVASION

A former U.S. treasurer, whose signature appears on most of the nation's currency, was sentenced Tuesday to four months in prison for evading taxes and obstructing justice.

Catalina Vasquez Villalpando had pleaded guilty to three felony charges, which also included conspiring to hide outside income while she served in the Bush administration.

Her signature is on all U.S. paper money printed between December 1989 and April 1994.

U.S. District Judge Thomas F. Hogan told her to surrender to a federal prison, still to be determined. After serving her time, she will be put on supervised release for three years, including four months of house detention. She also must do 200 hours of community service.

Villalpando had faced a maximum possible sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine on each of the convictions.

In February, when she entered her plea, Villalpando admitted reporting 1989 taxable income of $161,983 rather than the actual $329,884. She also acknowledged obstructing an independent prosecutor's investigation of the Reagan-era influence-peddling scandal at the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

And she admitted conspiring to conceal during her confirmation proceedings that she still was receiving financial benefits from her former employer, Communications International Inc.

by CNB