A Hoboken-based accountant today admitted failing to pay more than $914,000 in taxes on income generated from his accounting firm and various rental properties he owned, officials announced.
Reports say that Louis Picardo, 64, of Hoboken, New Jersey, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Stanley R. Chesler to one count of an information charging him with federal income tax evasion.
According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:
Picardo served as the tax collector in Hoboken between 1973 and 2008 and was a partner in Cannarozzi & Picardo LLC, a Hoboken-based accounting firm.
Picardo also was a member of multiple entities (the “Picardo Entities”) that managed both commercial and residential properties in Hudson County.
Picardo failed to report $3,725,853 in taxable income that he collected from Cannarozzi & Picardo and the Picardo Entities on federal income tax returns he filed with the IRS for the tax years 2012 to 2015, resulting in a tax loss to the United States of $914,908, according to reports.
Officials say that the tax evasion charge is punishable by a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a potential fine of $250,000 or twice the gross gain or loss from the offense. Sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 25.
U.S. Attorney Carpenito credited special agents of IRS-Criminal Investigation, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge John R. Tafur, with the investigation leading to today’s guilty plea.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Sean Farrell of the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s Special Prosecutions Division and Rahul Agarwal, Deputy Chief of the Criminal Division represented the government.