Honolulu businessman Michael Boulware was found guilty in his retrial yesterday on charges of filing false federal tax returns and trying to evade an estimated $4.5 million to $5.5 million in taxes from 1989 to 1997.

Boulware had been convicted in 2001 of those charges and a conspiracy count, but the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the tax convictions, setting up the retrial. After about a day of deliberations, a federal jury found Boulware guilty of the nine felony tax counts.

Visiting U.S. District Judge Edward Rafeedie scheduled Boulware's sentencing for Oct. 24. He allowed Boulware to remain free on bond until then.

Boulware declined to comment, but his lawyer Dennis O'Connor said his client was "surprised and not very happy." O'Connor said they plan to appeal the conviction.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Les Osborne said the jury did its job. "They decided the case on the overwhelming evidence of guilt," he said.

Boulware, 57, founder of Hawaiian Isle Enterprises Inc., a tobacco, coffee, water and vending machine business, was charged with devising various schemes to avoid reporting $10.2 million he received from the company.

Jerry Yamachika, a supervisory special agent for the Internal Revenue Service, said the taxes on the $10.2 million came to about $4.5 million to $5.5 million.

During the retrial, Boulware took the stand and disputed that he was trying to hide income or evade taxes.

Boulware was sentenced to 4 1/4 years in prison in 2002 before the appeals court overturned the tax convictions.

O'Connor said he guesses the sentence will be about the same as the 4 1/4-year term.

Former state Rep. Nathan Suzuki, who had prepared Boulware's tax returns, invoked the Fifth Amendment and refused to testify at Boulware's first trial. But he pleaded guilty and received a three-year federal sentence earlier this year for helping to create secretly held corporations and overseas bank accounts to hide Boulware's assets.

Suzuki's role in the federal tax fraud conspiracy included using resources at his state Capitol office as part of the scheme. Suzuki represented the Moanalua and Salt Lake area from 1992 to 2002.

In the retrial, Suzuki, who is serving his prison term, was granted immunity and testified as a prosecution witness.