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Omar Rodriguez, 49, who owned Mojito’s Lounge on Bayview Avenue, told a federal judge in Trenton on Wednesday that he “skimmed a substantial portion of [gross cash receipts] for his personal use, which he did not report as income, and to pay Mojito’s employees and suppliers in cash,” U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito said.
Between 2015 and 2017, Rodriguez, of Parlin, received more than $844,000 in income from Mojito’s that he failed to report to the IRS, Carpenito said.
Of that, $483,000 went to payroll and to pay certain employment taxes, the U.S. attorney said.
As a result, Rodriguez failed to pay $193,733 in taxes that should’ve gone to the IRS, he said.
U.S. District Judge Michael A. Shipp scheduled sentencing in Trenton for April 15 on Rodriguez’s plea to a single count of tax evasion.
Carpenito credited special agents of the IRS-Criminal Investigation with assembling the case that led to the guilty plea secured by Assistant U.S. Attorney Bernard J. Cooney of his Health Care Fraud Unit in Newark.
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