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Robert Porzio, age 48, of Westport, was sentenced on Monday, April 4, to 12 months and one day in prison followed by a year of supervised release, according to Leonard Boyle, United States attorney for the District of Connecticut.
Porzio was also ordered to pay a $25,000 fine.
He pleaded guilty on Dec. 16.
Porzio, who operates Bert’s Tree Service, Inc., deposited a number of customers’ checks into personal bank accounts, and he transferred a significant amount of the money into a personal investment account, Boyle said.
He kept the receipt of the payments from the corporation's bookkeeper, Boyle reported.
"These diverted payments were not reported either on his individual federal tax returns as additional salary or on the corporation’s tax returns as additional receipts," the US Attorney's Office reported.
For the tax years from 2012 through 2016, Porzio did not report more than $900,000 in additional income, the US Attorney's Office reported.
The underreporting resulted in a loss of $331,388 to the IRS, Boyle said.
Boyle said Porzio paid his back taxes but still owes interest and penalties.
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