The former owner of a Valencia aerospace company faces up to 5 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to taking part in a $20 million tax fraud scheme. Robert G. Cable pleaded to one count of conspiracy during a hearing May 24 before U.S. District Judge Christina Snyder. Cable, of La Crescenta, admitted to conspiring with Gene Haas and other employees at Haas Automation, Inc. in Oxnard to engage in a false invoice and payment scheme to defraud the Internal Revenue Service. The scheme involved check swapping between Haas Automation and Enmark Aerospace in Valencia and paperwork claiming that Enmark received payments from Hass for selling items that it never actually sold to the Oxnard firm. In 2000 and 2001, Cable received and cashed, on behalf of Enmark Aerospace, more than $25 million in Haas Automation checks and returning 98 percent of that amount to Haas. Cable is scheduled to be sentenced in January. Gene Haas is scheduled to go to trial in September on charges of conspiracy, subscribing to false tax returns and witness intimidation.
