Date: April 23, 2025
Contact: [email protected]
OAKLAND 〞 Howard Solomon, also known as Solomon Howard, pleaded guilty today to one count of mail fraud and one count of tax evasion in connection with embezzling from his former employer, the East Oakland Boxing Association (EOBA), a nonprofit organization that serves low-income youth in East Oakland neighborhoods and communities through a variety of programming, including after-school boxing lessons.
Solomon of Oakland, Calif., who served as the executive director of EOBA from late 2016 until 2021, was charged by information in February 2025. In pleading guilty, Solomon admitted to a multi-year mail fraud scheme in which he embezzled at least $549,000 from his former employer.
According to court documents and the plea agreement, after being added in September 2016 as an authorized signatory on EOBA bank accounts at Wells Fargo Bank, Solomon transferred EOBA funds out of the Wells Fargo accounts into accounts he controlled at other banking institutions. He also deposited charitable contributions to EOBA into the accounts he controlled, some of which were business accounts and others of which were his personal accounts. Solomon acknowledged that he took these actions without informing or seeking authority from EOBA board members or any other person affiliated with EOBA.
As one example, Solomon admitted that he deposited into a personal account a $50,000 donation that EOBA received in October 2019. The $50,000 donation was made to EOBA in connection with a December 2019 appearance by Stephen Curry and Ayesha Curry on the Ellen DeGeneres Show for a segment known as ※Ellen＊s Greatest Night of Giveaways,§ during which the Currys delivered various gifts to EOBA, including a $50,000 check from the show.
Solomon used the embezzled funds and donations to pay for personal expenses that had no connection to his job, including vacation expenses, a Ford Explorer, and Amazon purchases for personal use.
Solomon also admitted to tax evasion by failing to disclose the money he embezzled from EOBA as income and misstating expenses associated with two alleged businesses that Solomon claimed lost money on his tax filings for the years 2017 through 2021. In total, Solomon caused a tax loss to the IRS of approximately $287,185.
Acting United States Attorney Patrick D. Robbins and IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) Special Agent in Charge of the Oakland Field Office Linda Nguyen made the announcement.
Solomon＊s sentencing hearing is scheduled for Aug. 14, 2025, before U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers. He faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, a fine of $250,000 or twice the gain of the fraud, and restitution of at least $549,132 to the East Oakland Boxing Association for the mail fraud count under 18 U.S.C. ∫ 1341, and five years in prison, a fine of $250,000, and restitution of at least $287,185 to the IRS for the tax evasion count under 26 U.S.C. ∫ 7201. Any sentence will be imposed by the court only after consideration of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and the federal statute governing the imposition of a sentence, 18 U.S.C. ∫ 3553.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas R. Green is prosecuting this case with the assistance of Amala James and Alycee Lane. This prosecution is the result of an investigation by IRS-CI.
IRS-CI is the criminal investigative arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money-laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more. IRS-CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code, obtaining a 90% federal conviction rate. The agency has 20 field offices located across the U.S. and 14 attach谷 posts abroad.