Michael Grimm's last year in office

Rep. Michael Grimm leaves the courthouse on May 19, 2014. Grimm, a former Marine and FBI agent, is slated to be sentenced of a federal tax fraud charge on July 17. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Federal prosecutors want Michael Grimm to spend at least two years in prison, to drive home that "engaging in a pattern of lying and cheating will be met with a meaningful punishment."

In a sentencing memo filed late Friday afternoon, Assistant U.S. Attorneys James Gatta and Nathan Reilly asked a judge to lock up the former Staten Island GOP congressman for 24 to 30 months in prison for federal tax fraud.

"An incarceratory sentence will also signal to other business owners that engaging in similar fraudulent conduct will be met with significant consequences," the prosecutors wrote.

Even so, and despite how his business practices at his Manhattan restaurant ended his political career and could land him in prison, people are still willing to pay Grimm big bucks for start-up advice.

"Even now, in the wake of his conviction, (Grimm) earns $10,000 per month as a consultant to start-up companies," prosecutors wrote.

The documents don't name Grimm's clients.

In April of 2014, federal prosecutors hit Grimm with a 20-count indictment, accusing him of hiding $1 million in sales receipts from his restaurant, Healthalicious, hiring undocumented immigrants and perjury.

He called the investigation into him a "political witch hunt" and vowed to fight tooth and nail until exonerated, but ultimately pleaded guilty on Dec. 23 to a single felony count of federal tax fraud, a month and a half after winning re-election to the borough's congressional seat. He could face up to three years in prison.

In their letter, prosecutors accuse Grimm of trying to downplay his role at the restaurant, telling the Probation Department -- which handled his pre-sentencing investigation -- that his store manager taught him how to run the payroll operation there, and that he had no supervisory control over the manager's actions.

Prosecutors contend otherwise, pointing to e-mails sent both to and by Grimm.

"The defendant's email communications with the manager and others belie any claim that he and the manager were equals and that the defendant was not a manager or supervisor in his criminal activity involving the operation of Healthalicious," the memo reads.

In a January 2010 e-mail quoted by prosecutors, Grimm offers the manager a 10 percent stake in the store's ownership. That's despite the fact he told the Probation Department he sold his share in the place for $75,000 in 2009, according to the government's letter.

And in February 2010, Grimm bragged in an e-mail to a campaign staffer who had concerns about how his congressional campaign was being run that he turned the restaurant's fortunes around after he "took over everything," according to prosecutors.

From the e-mail:

"Nothing was getting done to my standards and finally I took over everything, even though I was originally only responsible for the accounting and legal. I learned how to cook, how to take orders and I worked like a dog to learn every aspect of the business myself and i put new systems in place. within 3 months of my deciding to take charge, we started to make money....

"So why am I telling you this: Because my instincts have never been wrong and in the past when I tried to do things the way others do them, I was unsuccessful and lost time and money."

Grimm also argued that his perjury in a January 2013 deposition was not an attempt to obstruct justice, because it predated the government's investigation into his operation of Healthalicious.

In fact, the investigation was underway, and press clippings indicate he knew that, prosecutors said.

Grimm also kept spreadsheets detailing how much each employee would get in their paychecks, and how much they'd get in cash, according to the filing.

"Even his statements to the Probation Department in advance of sentencing, which sought to diminish his criminal conduct and place the responsibility for his crimes on others ... illustrate that he has failed to fully come to terms with his criminal conduct," Reilly and Gatta wrote.

Grimm is slated to be sentenced before U.S. District Judge Pamela K. Chen on July 17.

His attorney, Stuart N. Kaplan, did not immediately return messages seeking comment Friday night.