Ralph and Karen Guastaferro
November 21, 2009 – 2:56 pm | by wisnuajiWhen Ralph and Karen Guastaferro laid their lives bare in January 2008 on the ABC reality show “Wife Swap,” viewers probably thought there was nothing left to say about this Amherst couple and their pampered daughter, who was given a present a day by her parents.
But the Guastaferros had yet another story to tell Tuesday in federal court, where they both pleaded guilty to felony charges.
Ralph Guastaferro, 62, admitted laundering $1.2 million in illegal proceeds for a Canadian telemarketing scheme.
And his wife, Karen, 55, admitted failing to declare wages for half her workers at the glass tinting shop the couple owned. Over four years, she said, she paid her workers $370,396 off the books and failed to pay $56,670 in taxes.
Now the Guastaferros, who were flush enough in January 2008 when they were reality TV stars to give their daughter a brand new Chevrolet Tahoe — even though she was too young to drive — are so broke they can’t afford to pay their lawyers.
And both admitted felonies that could send them to federal prison: 46 to 57 months for him; 10 to 16 months for her under federal sentencing guidelines.
The government had made no agreement on whether it would seek jail terms for either Guastaferro, said Assistant U. S. Attorney Maryellen Kresse, who prosecuted the couple.
Ralph Guastaferro could see his sentence guidelines come down to 27 to 33 months if he cooperates in the telemarketing investigation.
And although U. S. Magistrate Judge Jeremiah J. McCarthy said the court would not have to abide by the sentencing guidelines — meaning they could be given more or less time — the actual sentencing will be made by U. S. District Judge William M. Skretny.
The Guastaferros burst onto the national scene when they agreed to take part in “Wife Swap.” Karen Guastaferro lived in the home of a religious Indiana couple, and Angie Boss, the wife in that family, went to live with Ralph Guastaferro and his daughter, Alicia, in the Guastaferros’ home on Stonybrook Lane in Amherst.
The resulting program was popular on YouTube, with hundreds of thousands of hits, and viewers expressing their opinions on what they saw as the Guastaferros’ lavish lifestyle and pampering of Alicia, a former preschool beauty queen.
But federal investigators were already looking at the Guastaferros, and in June, a team of agents from the FBI and Internal Revenue Service staged all-day raids at the Guastaferro home and business, Eclipse Glass Tinting in Clarence.
Ralph Guastaferro, the government charged, operated a business called Eclipse Processing from November 2004 through January 2006, opening two checking accounts in this name at the Bank of Akron.
Money from the telemarketing fraud, agents charged, was deposited in two third-party payment processors, one in California, the other in Ohio, and the funds were then transferred to Guastaferro’s company account in Akron.
Guastaferro admitted that he laundered $1.2 million from the telemarketers and agreed in the plea that he would pay a fine of $100,000, plus any prison time he is given. The government has already seized $14,544 from him.
His wife admitted that between 2004 and 2008, she failed to report wages for all the workers, including herself and her husband, she employed at the glass tinting business.
In 2008, for instance, she reported having only three employees when there were five, and she failed to report wages of $69,981.
Herbert L. Greenman, a lawyer representing Karen Guastaferro, asked the judge to assign him as a paid counsel, as has Ralph Guastaferro’s attorney, Rodney O. Personious.
“Their finances are poor at the present time,” Greenman told the court.
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