A Salinas Wine Distributor faces up to five years in prison after she admitted this week to defrauding the federal government over $800,000. 43-year old Brenda Jo Kibbee was indicted in September of 2012 on 11 counts of failing to pay an excise tax on wine. She entered a guilty plea Tuesday. The crime reportedly took place between August and December of 2008 while Kibbee owned and operated Monterey Wine Services, a bonded wine cellar on Schilling Place in Salinas. The taxes were supposed to be paid to the government’s Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau. Kibbee is set to be sentenced in April.
