Evergreen Reporter

SAN FRANCISCO – Geoffrey Palermo, a former hospitality executive who later operated several auto repair shops in the Bay Area, was sentenced to 65 months in prison following his conviction on wire fraud, failing to pay taxes, and other charges. The announcement was made by First Assistant United States Attorney Patrick Robbins, FBI Special Agent in Charge Robert K. Tripp, and IRS Criminal Investigation Acting Special Agent in Charge Michael Mosley of the Oakland Field Office. The sentence was handed down by U.S. District Judge James Donato.

Palermo, 60, of Novato, California, pleaded guilty on March 11, 2024, to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud; two counts of honest services wire fraud; one count of wire fraud; one count of making a false statement to a bank; and one count of willful failure to collect or pay over tax. He had been charged in a Second Superseding Indictment in October 2021.

From 2008 through 2016, Palermo managed the Hilton hotel located in downtown San Francisco. During this period, he had authority over contracts and construction projects at the hotel.

According to his plea agreement, Palermo admitted he devised a kickback scheme involving contractors that deprived the Hilton hotel’s owners of more than $1.8 million. Palermo agreed with contractor Adan Roldan that Roldan would submit falsely inflated invoices for construction work at the hotel. Palermo approved these invoices and received kickbacks from Roldan totaling more than $1.6 million between 2013 and 2016.

Additionally, Palermo approved over $2 million in payments to another contractor based on inflated invoices and received over $300,000 in kickbacks from this contractor during 2014 and 2015.

After leaving his job at the Hilton San Francisco in 2016, Palermo managed GMP Cars, LLC. Between August and December 2019, he participated in a scheme to obtain approximately $5 million in Small Business Administration loans for GMP Cars by making false statements on loan applications.

Furthermore, on April 3, 2020, Palermo caused GMP Cars to make false statements on its Paycheck Protection Program loan application regarding payroll taxes.

As part of his plea agreement, Palermo admitted that as owner and manager of GMP Cars he failed to pay over more than $1 million in federal taxes withheld from employee paychecks owed for 2018.

A federal grand jury issued a second superseding indictment against Palermo and Roldan on October 5, 2021. At sentencing, three outstanding tax counts against Palermo were dismissed pursuant to his plea agreement with the United States.

Palermo has been detained since June 27, 2023. In addition to his prison sentence, Judge Donato ordered him to serve three years of supervised release after his incarceration ends. A hearing is scheduled for August 19, 2024, regarding restitution and forfeiture issues.

On March 11, 2024, Roldan pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. His sentencing hearing is set for August 12, 2024.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Christiaan Highsmith and Noah Stern are prosecuting the case with assistance from Aarian Beti. The prosecution results from an investigation by the FBI and IRS-CI.