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Wednesday, dec 25
Tag:
Tax Fraud
News
Holiday Deals Or Fraud? IRS Issues Warning For These Scams
As the holiday shopping season begins, the IRS reminds everyone that it’s not just your credit card balance you need to watch — it’s also your personal information. As part of its ninth annual National Tax Security Awareness Week, the IRS is warning taxpayers about a rise in holiday scams. The scammers aren’t interested in gifts under your tree; they’re after your Social Security number and financial information instead. Here’s how scammers are getting creative—and how you can stay safe: Phishing Emails: Be wary of emails pretending to be from reputable retailers, shipping companie…
Politics
Former NY Rep Paralyzed After Horse Accident Receiving Treatment In NJ: Report
Former New York Congressman Michael Grimm has been left paralyzed from the chest down after a severe horse-riding accident during a polo tournament, and is being treated in New Jersey, CBS News reports citing a friend of Grimm's. Grimm, age 54, was thrown from his horse in September and is now undergoing treatment at the renowned Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation, which has locations in West Orange, Saddle Brook, Chester, and Marlton. Headquartered in West Orange, Kessler is where actor Christopher Reeve was treated following a similar accident in 1995, and was…
Police & Fire
Former Wildwood Mayor Admits To Healthcare Fraud, NJ Attorney General Says
A former mayor of Wildwood admitted to his role in a healthcare fraud scheme that stole more than $600,000 in government funds, authorities said. Peter Byron, 68, pleaded guilty to three charges on Friday, Sept. 27, Attorney General Matthew Platkin said in a news release on Monday, Sept. 30. Byron resigned as mayor in September 2023 after he was indicted in the case. According to court documents and statements, Byron, current Mayor Ernie Troiano Jr., and Deputy Mayor Steve Mikulski enrolled in the State Health Benefits Program (SHBP) despite being ineligible. The SHBP is only open…
Business
South Philly Cheesesteak Proprietors Get Prison Time For Tax Scheme, Feds Say
A father-son pair of cheesesteak shop owners were sentenced to prison last week for hiding $8 million in revenue from tax collectors, say federal prosecutors. Nicholas Lucidonio, 57, and Anthony Lucidonio Sr., 84, the proprietors of Tony Luke's in South Philadelphia, will each spend 20 months behind bars, said the Justice Department in a release. The Lucidonios, of New Jersey, carried out a "decade-long conspiracy to defraud the IRS" from 2006 to 2016, prosecutors said. The pair only deposited a portion of their earnings into the business's bank accounts and gave "inco…
Police & Fire
Family Ran Multimillion-Dollar Cathouse At Sayreville Strip Club, New Indictment Alleges
UPDATE: A fierce battle between a Middlesex County family and authorities who've charged them with operating a wildly lucrative whorehouse masquerading as a strip club intensified with a new round of charges. The owners of Club XXXV on Route 35 in Sayreville used “various illegal means to turn their club into a multimillion-dollar racket (that) doubled as a house of prostitution,” New Jersey Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin said a superseding indictment returned by a grand jury in Trenton alleges. More than $10 million in proceeds from the business “moved through numerous bank accounts c…
News
IRS Bags Hundreds Of Tax Cheats, Money Launderers As COVID Relief Fraud Tops $3.2 Billion
It wasn't long after the government began offering COVID relief loans three years ago that IRS investigators were hot on the tails of scammers. Since then, agents with IRS Criminal Investigation have pursued 975 tax and money-laundering cases nationwide involving $3.2 billion worth of fraudulently obtained loans, credits and payments meant to help American workers, families, and small businesses who were rocked by the pandemic. Over that time, IRS-CI has kept its conviction rate at nearly 100%, federal authorities say. It has produced indictments against 458 defendants, …
News
NJ Tax Preparer Admits Helping Dozens Of Clients Cheat IRS Out Of $500,000
A Union County tax preparer admitted that she helped dozens of clients cheat the government out of nearly a half-million dollars, federal authorities said. Nehemie Leon, of Roselle, worked for Preferred Tax Choice in Irvington, records show. While there, Leon admitted in court, she “fabricated and inflated” certain tax credits, itemized deductions, expenses, and exemptions for a host of clients, said Tammy Tomlins, the acting special agent in charge of IRS-Criminal Investigation’s Newark Field Office. Altogether, Leon prepared more than 100 individual returns for 31 clients, Tomlins said. …
News
Owners Of Popular Philly Cheesesteak Joint Plead Guilty In Tax Fraud Scheme
The owners of a popular Philadelphia cheesesteak joint pleaded guilty Monday, May 9 to federal charges in a tax fraud scheme, authorities said. Anthony Lucidonio, Sr., 84, of Philadelphia, and Nicholas Lucidonio, 56, of New Jersey, the owners of Tony Luke’s on Oregon Avenue were accused of hiding more than $8 million from the IRS for around a decade, according to the US Attorney's Office. Federal prosecutors say the father-son duo did this by paying their employees in cash to avoid withholding payroll taxes between 2006 and 2016. The pair were indicted in 2020. The pros…
News
Tax Scammer From Bergen Gets 24 Months, No Bail, For Posing As 18 Different Refund Recipients
UPDATE: A confessed ID scammer from Tenafly was sentenced to two years and two days in federal prison for posing as 18 different people to collect tax refunds, authorities said. Emmanuel A. Barrientos-Fermin, 39, must serve all of the term because there's no parole in the federal prison system. Barrientos-Fermin previously admitted in US. District Court in Newark that he gave an unnamed co-conspirator a photo of himself that was used to produce bogus driver’s licenses with his picture on them. The co-conspirator also gave him matching Social Security cards, driver’s licenses and W-2 forms …
News
Ring Member Convicted In $565,091 IRS Scam That Sent Refund Checks To Same NJ Town
A New Jersey woman was convicted of participating in a massive ID theft scheme that had $565,091 in tax refunds from the IRS sent to a small section of the same town. Awilda Henriquez, 35, took her chances with a trial after three of her accomplices took guilty pleas. She was found guilty in U.S. District Court in Camden on Thursday of 27 counts involving defrauding the federal government, mail theft, stealing government money and aggravated ID theft, Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig said. Ring members filed more than 3,300 tax returns in 2013 using the names and Social Security numbe…
News
Ex-Newark Officer Who Took Payoffs To Protect Prostitutes Gets Nearly 4 Years In Fed Pen
A retired Newark police veteran who admitted pocketing tens of thousands of dollars to protect city whorehouses while he was on the beat was sentenced to a little under four years in federal prison. Julio I. Rivera, 52, of Old Bridge, not only looked the other way: He also promised to have fellow officers do the same and agreed to crack down on a paying brothel owner's competitor, authorities said. Rivera pulled down between $200 and $800 a week from the operators, according to a 14-count indictment on file in U.S. District Court in Newark. The indictment charged Rivera with several counts…
Police & Fire
NJ Man Stole Nearly $57K From Hackettstown Livestock Auction, Prosecutor Says
A New Jersey man was charged after stealing nearly $57,000 from Hackettstown Livestock Auction Cooperative, authorities said. Howard Hoffman, 66, of Annandale, was charged with theft by unlawful taking and filing a false tax return on Wednesday, according to the Warren County Prosector's Office. The prosecutor's office launched an investigation after cooperative members told them that they were missing approximately $57,000 in cash payments due from customers for livestock purchased at auction between 2016 and 2017. Hoffman, the cooperative's auction master, was responsible for t…
News
NJ Man Convicted In $1.3M 'Mortgage Recovery' Scheme
A South Jersey man was convicted in federal court for his role in a scheme to defraud the IRS of more than $3 million. Jurors in U.S. District Court in Camden agreed that John Barry Jr., of Pemberton and accomplices in New York and elsewhere doctored tax returns that helped clients eliminate outstanding mortgage debts by claiming that a substantial amount of taxes had already been withheld. In exchange, Barry collected 20 to 35 percent of the refunds and split the money with his co-conspirators, federal prosecutors said. (Barry also didn’t file his own 2016 return or report any of his ill-…
News
Jersey Shore Contractor Admits Ducking $609,668 In Employment, Personal Income Taxes
The owner of a Jersey Shore construction and demolition company admitted in federal court Wednesday that he ducked employment and personal income taxes. Peter Alvarez, 54, of Atlantic Highlands didn’t report income from clients’ checks that he cashed and then used, in part, to pay employees at Mr. Demo, a construction and demolition business that he owned and operated in Leonardo, Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig said. Rather than face a trial, Alvarez took a deal from federal prosecutors. In exchange for leniency, the Middletown native pleaded guilty to evading employment and person…
News
NJ Con Man Who Swindled Elderly Out Of $2M Headed To Fed Pen
A confessed Somerset County con man is headed to federal prison for 6½ years for swindling elderly investors out of $2 million that he used, in part, to pay for his daughter’s college tuition and sorority fees. For nearly a decade, ex-financial advisor Daniel Rivera, 51, told primarily elderly investors that his Robbins Lane Properties was “staffed by experienced real estate professionals, Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig said. Rivera promised a “guaranteed monthly income” thanks to a rate of return based on secure investments, she added. The truth, Honig said, was: “Robbins Lane had …
News
Philadelphia Tax Preparer From MontCo Charged With Filing Bogus Returns
The owner of a Philadelphia tax preparation business filed bogus returns for clients, a 29-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury charges. Eric Amaefuna, 65, of King of Prussia took a number of steps to defraud the IRS at American Financial Stewardship (AFS) in northeast Philadelphia from at least 2014 through 2016, the indictment says. These included claiming false or inflated employee business expenses, losses and miscellaneous deductions, as well as increasing the stated amount of state and local taxes paid, the indictment returned in Philadelphia says. Amaefuna's clients, in …
News
Jersey Shore Bookie Admits Running Own ‘Pick Six’ Lottery, Cash Prizes Topped $100,000
A Jersey Shore bookmaker admitted in federal court on Tuesday that he operated his own lottery game in Hudson County using the numbers from the New Jersey Lottery Pick Six to award winners. Up to 8,000 participants at a time selected six numbers from 1 to 49 at $20 a pop, Edward O’Neill, 54, told a U.S. District Court judge in Newark. The sole winner of the illegal lottery was whoever matched all six numbers selected in the official Pick Six drawing. Prizes often exceeded $100,000, said O’Neill, of Beachwood, who skimmed a 10% vig off the total bets. Like bookies of days past, O’Neill per…
News
Scam
ALERT: Don't Let Sketchy Tax Preparer Rip You Off, IRS Warns
The IRS began accepting and processing 2020 tax year returns on Friday -- with a warning. Although most tax preparers deliver honest and professional service, “there’s a small number of dishonest preparers who set up shop during filing season to steal money and personal and financial information from clients,” said Michael Montanez, the special agent in charges of IRS Criminal Investigation’s Newark Field Office. Look no further than the results of some his squad’s year-round investigative work. The most recent example is Joseph Kenny Batts, a tax preparer in New Jersey who was sentence…
News
NJ Tax Preparer Gets 5 Years In Fed Pen For $1.6M IRS Scam
A twice-convicted tax preparer who helped New Jersey clients scam the IRS out of $1.6 million is headed to federal prison for the next five years. Joseph Kenny Batts, 52, of Elkridge, MD became the third of five men sentenced for preparing bogus tax returns at Tax Pro’s and Tax Solutions & Associates in Essex and Union counties. Batts, who already had a federal tax fraud conviction on his record, was the only one of the group to go to trial. U.S. District Judge Michael A. Shipp convicted him of conspiracy to defraud the United States, as well as five counts of aiding in preparing fals…
News
Atlantic City Man Gets 6½ Years In Fed Pen For $2.5 Million Tax Fraud
An Atlantic City man was sentenced to 6½ years in federal prison for running a $2.5 million “mortgage recovery” tax scam. Kenneth Crawford Jr. will have to serve just about all of the sentence because there’s no parole in the federal prison system. The judge also ordered him to serve three years of supervised release and pay $1,393,511 in restitution to the United States. Crawford led a ring that obtained refunds from the IRS for clients who were facing foreclosure or behind on their mortgage payments and weren’t entitled to them, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito said. Crawford and his accom…
Police & Fire
Jersey Shore Pizzeria Owner Gets 15 Months In Fed Pen For Ducking $425,000 In Taxes
The owner of a Wildwood Crest pizzeria must serve a plea-bargained 15 months in federal prison for filing false income tax returns, authorities said. Giuseppe D’Arancio, 61, of Cape May Court House must serve the entire term handed down Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Camden because there's no parole in the federal prison system. He also must spend a year of supervised release and pay $507,246 in restitution to the IRS under the sentence imposed by U.S. District Judge Joseph H. Rodriguez. D'Arancio and a co-owner of Sal's Pizza on New Jersey Avenue "kept two sets of acco…
Police & Fire
Monmouth Accountant Arrested For Swindling $385K
A Middlesex County man with an Englishtown-based accounting firm has been arrested for stealing tax payments from a wholesale distributor, authorities said. William A. Berry of South Plainfield was charged with theft by failure to make required disposition, Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher J. Gramiccioni. The victims, former New Jersey residents, own a multi-million-dollar wholesale distribution company that specializes in holiday décor. The wholesaler is currently based in Charleston, South Carolina, Gramiccioni said. Berry was arrested on Tuesday with…
Police & Fire
Feds Charge Former Local Party Committee Chairman With Lying On Tax Returns, Student Aid Apps
A public relations specialist and former local Democratic chairman from Union County lied both on his tax returns and on requests for student aid for one of his children, a federal grand jury indictment returned Tuesday alleges. The IRS originally charged Anthony Salters, 58, of Hillside earlier this year with filing a false federal income tax return in 2013 by stating that his business, Media Allies LLC, had no income. In fact, the IRS said, Salters and Media Allies had “substantial gross receipts” in 2013, including $104,411 worth of checks from, among others, the City of Orange the Pate…
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