Deirdre M. Daly, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that MARK W. ERRICO, 64, of Norwalk, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Stefan R. Underhill in Bridgeport to 24 months of imprisonment, followed by three years of supervised release, for embezzlement and tax evasion offenses.
According to court documents and statements made in court, for approximately 20 years, ERRICO worked for the owner of two companies located in Norwalk, handling the companies’ finances, including payroll, bank accounts, accounts payable and accounts receivable. Between approximately February 2011 and March 2014, ERRICO embezzled approximately $823,476.22 from the two companies. ERRICO transferred stolen funds from the companies’ accounts to pay his personal credit card debts, and also forged the signature of the companies’ owner on company checks and cashed them or made them payable to his own company and deposited them into his company’s business account.
For the 2011 through 2014 tax years, ERRICO attempted to evade paying federal taxes on $851,076.22 of unreported income, which resulted in a total tax loss of $265,326.
As an example, for tax year 2013, ERRICO filed a federal individual tax return for himself in which he stated his taxable income for 2013 was $31,200. The tax return failed to report approximately $536,434.50 in money he stole from the two Norwalk companies.
Judge Underhill ordered ERRICO to pay $649,346.09 in restitution to the two companies from which he stole money, and $265,326 in back taxes, plus penalties and interest, to the IRS.
On April 24, 2017, ERRICO pleaded guilty to one count of the interstate transportation of money obtained by fraud and one count of tax evasion.
ERRICO, who is released on bond, was ordered to report to prison on Oct. 18, 2017.
This matter was investigated by the Internal Revenue Service - Criminal Investigation Division, U.S. Secret Service and Connecticut Financial Crimes Task Force. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Peter S. Jongbloed.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
