NEWARK, N.J. - A former vice president at a South Plainfield, New Jersey, traffic safety equipment business was sentenced today to 33 months in prison for evading income taxes on more than $2 million in withdrawals he made from the business for his own use, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.
Anthony R. Pecoraro, 52, of Colts Neck, New Jersey, previously pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge William H. Walls to an information charging him with one count of tax evasion. Judge Walls imposed the sentence today in Newark federal court.
According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:
Pecoraro worked in 2008 and 2009 at Traffic Safety Service LLC, which provided traffic safety equipment and other traffic related services to local and state municipalities and private businesses. In connection with his position as a vice president, he had access to the company’s business account.
During his guilty plea proceeding, Pecoraro admitted he wrote checks for unauthorized cash withdrawals for a total of approximately $2,126,200 between June 2008 and December 2009, which he took for personal use. Pecoraro acknowledged he failed to report this money as taxable income for calendar years 2008 and 2009 in the amounts of $563,800 and $1,562,400, respectively, and that if he had reported the additional cash on his income tax returns he would have owed the government approximately $733,970.
In addition to the prison term, Judge Walls sentenced Pecocaro to serve three years of supervised release and ordered him to pay $1,241,604.91in restitution to the IRS.
U.S. Attorney Fishman credited special agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Newark Division, under the direction of Acting Special Agent in Charge Kevin Kelly; and special agents with IRS-Criminal Investigation, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Jonathan D. Larsen, with the investigation leading to today’s sentencing.
The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Lakshmi Srinivasan Herman of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Economic Crimes Unit in Newark.
Defense counsel: John McDonald Esq., Somerville, New Jersey
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
