Rocco Manzione, Tax Fraud, New York 2023

Queens Business Owner Pleads Guilty to Tax Evasion

According to court documents, Rocco Manzione, of Queens, New York, owned and operated a series of concrete companies. Manzione pleaded guilty today to tax evasion and employment tax fraud.

Manzione, 52, faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison for each count of tax evasion and employment tax fraud. He is scheduled to be sentenced at a later date. In addition to prison time, Manzione faces a period of supervised release, restitution, and monetary penalties.

Manzione withheld federal employment taxes from his employees' wages, but did not timely file his companies' employment tax returns nor 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.

Manzione 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's case was investigated by the IRS-Criminal Investigation and is being prosecuted by Trial Attorneys Brittney Campbell and Kathryn Carpenter of the Justice Department's Tax Division. The case is being handled by Acting U.S. Attorney Jacquelyn M. Kasulis of the Eastern District of New York and Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stuart M. Goldberg of the Justice Department's Tax Division.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/queens-business-owner-pleads-guilty-tax-fraud