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Michael Florio of Park Ridge is scheduled to be sentenced on June 26 after pleading guilty in federal court to employment tax fraud.
He theoretically could be sentenced to up to five years in prison but more likely will receive probation, with monitoring, and have to pay restitution to the government.
Florio stiffed the government $174,284, authorities said.
“Paying employees in cash to evade employment taxes is a crime,” said JoAnn S. Zuniga, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the IRS Criminal Investigation Division in Newark. “Those employers who practice this method of paying salaries will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.”
In 2007 and 2008, Florio admitted, he employed several people at his business — formerly known as Florio Landscape Contractors Inc. — who didn’t have Social Security numbers.
The government said he paid roughly $1.14 million to them in cash or in checks payable to cash or directly to them.
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