Sydney developer Nati Stoliar jailed in US biofuels credits fraud case

The expatriate Sydney property developer Nati Stoliar has been sentenced to two years jail in the United States, after he pleaded guilty to fraud under the US Clean Air Act.

His Nevada home (below) has been sold after he was ordered to pay more than $1.4 million in restitution and to forfeit $4 million in cash in a biofuels credits fraud case.

The 64 year old Stoliar, who pleaded guilty in mid-2014 to the fraud, faced a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

The FBI announced earlier this month Stoliar had been sentenced to 24 months in prison along with three years of supervised release. It was for his role in an illegal scheme to generate fraudulent biodiesel credits and to export biodiesel without providing biodiesel credits to the United States. 

As a Sydney property developer Nati Stoliar owned two of the trophy homes of Sydney, Boomerang at Elizabeth Bay and Villa del Mar which he built at Point Piper.

Villa del Mare was sold by Stoliar sold in 2004 for $21.5 million, hitting the headlines earlier this year when Treasurer Joe Hockey ordered the trophy home be sold after recent Chinese purchaser ran foul of foreign investment regulations.

Stoliar's six bedroom, six bathroom US home in Henderson, Nevada was sold under order of forfeiture at $1,140,000.

Stoliar's business partner James Jariv was sentenced in federal court in Las Vegas to ten years in prison. Records show other items forfeited included a gold Bulgari chronograph and a diamond tennis bracelet.

Under the 2009 scheme, Stoliar and his co-defendants were alleged to falsely claim to import, purchase, and blend more than 4.2 million gallons of biodiesel.

They then allegedly sold the fraudulent RINs generating more than $7 million. 

It was alleged Stoliar and Jariv instructed tanker truck drivers to drive back and forth across the U.S.-Canada border.

The drivers would claim to be importing biodiesel into the United States and exporting feedstock to City Farm in Canada. The trips would generate paperwork purporting to show biodiesel production and importation.

Accounts were utilized in Nevada, Canada and Australia, and transactions were investigated by the U.S. EPA Criminal Investigation Division and the FBI, with assistance from the U.S. Secret Service and the Department of Homeland Security. 

Following his indictment, Stoliar’s arrest was sought by the United States.

Located in Poland, Stoliar returned to the United States to surrender for arrest.

James Jariv and Stoliar then both pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy, one count of conspiracy to engage in money laundering, two counts of wire fraud and one count of making false statements under the Clean Air Act. 

“This was an egregious scheme to defraud fuel suppliers, the United States, and a program designed to strengthen our nation’s petroleum independence and improve our air quality” said assistant attorney general John C. Cruden for the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division.

“We will not tolerate such fraud and will vigorously prosecute those who put their own enrichment above our nation’s interests.”

“Mr. Jariv and his co-defendant (Stoliar) defrauded the United States government of millions of dollars through this biodiesel fraud scheme,” said U.S. attorney Daniel Bogden for the District of Nevada.

This article was first published in the Sunday Telegraph.