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David Seruya, 42, of Brooklyn sold his shares to the Edison-based home-warranty company for more than $4.1 million in a 2014 buyout, federal authorities said.
The deal included a lump sum payment and installment payments spread out over 24 months, according to the U.S. Justice Department.
On three straight tax returns, from 2014 through 2016, Seruya gave his return preparer “false and incomplete income information,” underreporting the income he received from the sale, an indictment returned in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn alleges.
He also didn’t inform his return preparer about income received from canceled mortgage debt.
Rather than risk a trial, Seruya took a deal from the government, pleading guilty to tax evasion in U.S. District Court in Newark on Thursday.
U.S. District Judge Julien X. Neals scheduled sentencing for Dec. 14. Seruya, previously of Allenhurst, remained free on bond until then.
Seruya will have to serve out a full prison sentence, if he gets one, because there’s no parole in the federal prison system. He’s also agreed to supervised release, restitution and fines as part of the plea deal.
U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Philip R. Sellinger and Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stuart M. Goldberg of the Justice Department’s Tax Division credited members of the IRS-Criminal Investigation Newark Field Office with the investigation leading to the plea, secured by Justice Department Tax Division Trial Attorney Shawn Noud and Assistant U.S. Attorney Carolyn Silane of Sellinger’s office.
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