Queens Business Owner Pleads Guilty to Tax Fraud | OPA

A New York man pleaded guilty today to tax evasion and employment tax fraud.

According to court documents, Rocco Manzione, of Queens, New York, owned and operated a series of concrete companies. From 2014 to 2017, Manzione withheld federal employment taxes from his employees’ wages, but did not timely file his companies’ employment tax returns, nor did he pay the required taxes to the IRS. For the third quarter of 2016 alone, Manzione failed to pay more than $85,000 in payroll taxes that he withheld from wages of employees of Advanced Transit Mix Corp.

In addition to his payroll tax fraud, Manzione evaded his individual income taxes. For tax years 2015 through 2017, Manzione did not file federal income tax returns, even though he earned almost $2,000,000 in income during that period. Manzione also concealed income from the IRS by transferring funds from his concrete companies to a bank account in the name of a nominee corporation called RA Equities LLC. He used some of the funds deposited into the nominee account for personal expenses, and did not report that income to the IRS. In total, Manzione caused a tax loss to the IRS of more than $1.5 million.

Manzione is scheduled to be sentenced at a later date and faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison for each count of tax evasion and employment tax fraud. The defendant also faces a period of supervised release, restitution and monetary penalties. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stuart M. Goldberg of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and Acting U.S. Attorney Jacquelyn M. Kasulis of the Eastern District of New York made the announcement.

The IRS-Criminal Investigation is investigating the case.

Trial Attorneys Brittney Campbell and Kathryn Carpenter of the Justice Department’s Tax Division are prosecuting the case.