A New Jersey trucking company owner was sentenced to federal prison after authorities discovered that he had schemed to avoid paying more than two million dollars in personal and corporate income tax.
On Tuesday, November 5, 41 year old Tito Viteri was sentenced in federal court in Trenton, New Jersey, to two years in prison along with two years of supervised release. Viteri had previously pled guilty to one charge of tax evasion.
According to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office District of New Jersey, Viteri owned and operated multiple trucking companies since 2002.
From the U.S. Attorney’s Office:
Between 2002 and 2011, and in 2015, Viteri evaded the payment of more than $2 million in personal and business-related taxes by:
• “pyramiding” companies and using nominees as the purported owners of several of the companies in order to shield business assets while incurring employment tax liabilities;
• failing to file timely and accurate quarterly federal tax returns by falsely categorizing employees as independent contractors, for whom employment taxes did not have to be paid;
• receiving unreported kickback income from an employee;
• concealing personal income and assets by using nominees, and depositing substantial amounts of income into nominee bank accounts and failing to report that income on his personal tax returns.
Authorities say that the IRS determined that Viteri owed $785,000 in tax from one of his trucking companies along wth $315,000 in personal income tax. Viteri made payments to the IRS from August 2011 through December 2013 but stopped, claiming he wasn’t making enough money to continue paying.
In spite of his claim, investigators determined that Viteri spent $111,000 in rental payments and another $920,000 on a home in Cream Ridge that he purchased under his mother’s name.
Viteri’s tax evasion totaled $2.3 million, according to federal authorities.