Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that TARIQ TAHIR, the owner and operator of DNS Construction Corporation, was sentenced today in Manhattan federal court to a term of five years of probation and $883,730.52 in restitution for committing two counts of tax fraud by failing to pay over $800,000 in income taxes and payroll taxes from 2006 to 2008. TAHIR pled guilty in March 2015 before United States District Judge Andrew L. Carter, Jr., who imposed today’s sentence.
According to the criminal information, other documents filed in Manhattan federal court, and statements made at related court proceedings:
TAHIR owned and operated a Yonkers-based construction company named DNS Construction Corporation (“DNS"). From 2006 through 2008, TAHIR engaged in two tax fraud schemes in order to avoid paying over $800,000 in income taxes and payroll taxes that were due and owing by DNS. To execute the first scheme, TAHIR cashed checks at multiple check-cashing businesses in Manhattan and Brooklyn, rather than depositing those checks into the bank accounts of DNS, so that he could conceal DNS’s true revenues from state and federal tax authorities. To carry out the second scheme, TAHIR paid DNS’s employees primarily in cash so that he would be able to omit these salary payments from DNS’s federal tax returns without detection by tax authorities. By failing to report these payments, TAHIR underpaid the federal payroll taxes due and owing by DNS during this period.
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In addition to the term of probation, TAHIR, 67, of Yonkers, New York, was ordered to pay $771,710.32 in restitution to the IRS and $112,020.20 in restitution to the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance.
Mr. Bharara praised the work of the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation Division. Mr. Bharara also thanked the U.S. Department of Justice’s Tax Division for their assistance in the investigation.
This case is being handled by the Office’s Complex Frauds and Cybercrime Unit. Assistant United States Attorney Jonathan Cohen is in charge of the prosecution.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
