SHARE

Bergen/Hudson lawyer admits stiffing IRS for 10 years

Former River Vale attorney Frank Cutruzzula admitted today that he went 10 years without filing a tax return with the IRS and instead used the money for custom-made suits, vacations and credit-card payments.

Photo Credit: Cliffview Pilot

That includes taxes on $1.1. million he collected from 2005 through 2007, the government said.

Cutruzzula, a 48-year-old Seton Hall Law School graduate who practiced in Jersey City, also hadn’t filed a corporate income tax return since 2002 for a company that purportedly imported water from Italy.

“It is fitting that, as part of his punishment, Cutruzzula will forfeit the privilege of practicing law.” U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman said.

Cutruzzula kept the money in four separate bank accounts — three in his name and one in the name of the company, FSC Imports Inc., government records show.

He deposited $846,196 from his law practice in 2005 and 2006, then wrote checks to himself for nearly $470,000 that he used on “custom-made men’s suits, a men’s Tourneau watch, payments to various luxury resorts, a Disney Vacation Club, and his retirement account, mortgage payments for his personal residence, cash payments to himself; and payments to various personal credit card accounts that he used,” Fishman said.

Of that, $187,453 should’ve gone to Uncle Sam, he said.

U.S. District Judge William H. Walls scheduled a Dec. 20 sentencing in Newark.

As part of his guilty plea, Cutruzzula has agreed to a voluntary lifetime disbarment from the New Jersey State Bar

Fishman credited special agents of IRS-Criminal Investigation unit for making the case, presented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Deborah J. Gannett of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Health Care and Government Fraud Unit.

 


 


SUPPORT Cliffview Pilot:

{loadposition log}

 

to follow Daily Voice Pascack Valley and receive free news updates.

SCROLL TO NEXT ARTICLE