By Ken Thorbourne
Journal staff writer

Union City resident Rene Avila, the flamboyant publisher of Avance, a weekly Spanish-language newspaper, was sentenced yesterday to one year and one day in prison for tax evasion, U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie announced.

In meting out the sentence, U.S. District Judge Katherine S. Hayden noted Avila's failure to pay income taxes over several years.

 
As part of his plea agreement with the U.S. Attorney's office, Avila admitted to attempting to hide income from the Internal Revenue Service for several years during the 1990s and agreed to pay all taxes owed, which totals roughly $147,937.

Specifically, Avila admitted that he concealed income earned in connection with Avance by cashing business receipts at a check-cashing establishment instead of depositing the funds into Avance's business accounts, the U.S. Attorney's office said.

The publisher agreed to plead guilty to one of three tax-evasion charges against him in exchange for the government dropping two remaining counts, officials said.

Avila agreed to file amended tax returns for the years 1994 through 1999. At the sentencing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Boxer said Avila failed to declare more than $400,000 in income he swindled from Avance, officials said.

Once a striking figure with flowing silver hair, Avila often wore expensive fur coats, large gold chains, jeweled rings and a Rolex watches, and in the past drove expensive luxury vehicles, including a Rolls Royce.

As owner and operator of Nuestra Cuba Semanario, Inc., Avila, a Cuban emigre, published Avance, which is distributed primarily in Hudson County.

Established as a "subchapter S" corporation, Nuestra Cuba was not required to pay taxes on its ordinary income, records said. As the sole shareholder of Nuestra Cuba, Avila was required to report the corporation's income or loss on his individual income tax returns.

In March of 2002, a half-dozen federal agents used a rented truck to haul records from Avila's home and office.

The newspaper covered primarily the Latin American community and North Hudson politics for decades.