Yonkers masonry contractor Mario G. Nunes employed several schemes over a six-year period to evade taxes, according to a criminal complaint, by concealing income of nearly $1.6 million.
Nunes pleaded not guilty on Dec. 1 before U.S. Magistrate Judge Judith C. McCarthy in federal court, White Plains. He was released from custody on posting a $100,000 personal recognizance bond.
The Internal Revenue Service originally detected problems in a 2010 audit. Eventually the IRS assessed Nunes for $85,692 in unpaid taxes, interest and penalties for six years over a 12-year span from 2006 to 2017.
The assessments were based on Nunes’ self-reported taxes.
But according to the criminal charges, Nunes also concealed business income on his personal income tax returns for 2012 through 2017.
The business booked $1,836,732 in revenue for the six-year period, according to the criminal complaint, but Nunes reported business receipts of only $236,910. He earned $1,725,783 personally but reported $125,961, nearly $1.6 million short.
In 2016, for instance, he allegedly reported a total income of $2,552 but actually earned $497,052.
The complaint describes several schemes.
In 2014 Nunes told the IRS that he had no income and he was relying on friends for his living expenses. But bank records show checks deposited in a business account for Woodlands of Yonkers, according to the complaint, and checks from customers being exchanged for money at a check-cashing service.
In 2015, the government says, Nunes deposited more than $300,000 in personal bank accounts and had a customer pay $7,904 directly to one of his suppliers.
In 2016, the year he earned $497,052, Nunes allegedly had a tax preparation service tell the IRS that he was not working, had no source of income and was living with friends and family.
In 2017 he transferred $100,000 from a personal bank account to a joint business account to pay personal expenses, the government claims.
In 2018, he allegedly persuaded a customer to open a joint checking account with him for receiving business payments and paying his personal expenses.
In July 2018, according to the complaint, Nunes called the IRS and reported that he had not worked since an accident in 2015 and that he had been surviving by borrowing money from family and friends.
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams accused Nunes of tax evasion, filing fraudulent tax returns and failure to file an income tax return.
