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The once-proud co-owners of Mario's Pizzeria in Ocean City, Giuseppe "Joe" Cannuscio, 74, and Ernesto Cannuscio, 70, are scheduled to be sentenced for tax evasion this fall.
Both men took deals from the government rather than risk trial, pleading guilty in federal court in Camden to conspiring to evade taxes within a couple weeks of one another.
Employees at Mario's, which was founded in 1977, were paid off the books over the course of several years, said Tammy Tomlins, the acting special agent in charge of IRS Criminal Investigation’s Newark Field Office.
The company accountant was kept in the dark, Tomlins said.
In the end, the IRS got short-changed by $208,448 in personal, corporate and payroll taxes, she said.
The brothers sold the popular pizzeria at the corner of 15th Street and Bay Avenue two years ago to the Sannuti family, who kept the staff and the name.
Ernesto Cannuscio is scheduled for sentencing on Oct. 25. Giuseppe Cannuscio is scheduled for sentencing on Nov. 16.
The case against them was "the result of hardworking IRS-CI Special Agents protecting the tax system to ensure everyone pays their fair share of taxes, including business owners," Tomlins said.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason M. Richardson of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Civil Rights Division in Camden is handling the case for the government.
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