U.S. Attorney Damian Williams has charged two Scarsdale accountants with conspiracy to defraud the IRS for allegedly misrepresenting more than $2 million in income for nine construction companies.
George Sanossian surrendered on Feb. 20 and was charged before Magistrate Judge Judith C. McCarthy in U.S. District Court, White Plains. Jack N. Sardis’s initial appearance was held on Feb. 22.
Both men pled not guilty and were released from custody on posting $250,000 personal recognizance bonds.
Sanossian and Sardis are co-founders of Sanossian, Sardis & Co., a small CPA firm with offices in the Vernon Hills Shopping Center in Eastchester.
From 2012 to April 2018, according to the charging documents, the accountants agreed to conceal clients’ personal incomes and the wages they paid their employees, to evade federal income and payroll taxes.
The CPA partners, and other members of the firm who are not identified in the charging papers, allegedly advised clients to make checks payable to a shell company. Â Members of the firm then cashed the checks, kept some of the money as fees and returned the rest to the clients.
Some clients used the cash personally and did not report it as income on their federal and state tax returns, according to the government. Some clients used the cash to pay employees but did not report the wages or withhold income taxes or deduct Social Security and Medicare contributions.
In January 2017, for example, a client cut a $8,900 check to Tios Construction Corp., according to the government, but failed to report the income received in the check cashing scheme on the 2017 tax return.
In another instance that month, a client issued a $9,200 check payable to Tios Construction Corp., then texted Sardis that “the check is in your mailbox,” according to the charging papers.
Sardis allegedly texted back: Your “papers are ready. Can we meet tonight in NJ? What time?? I can meet you at my firehouse.”
The partners and other members of the firm allegedly cashed more than $2 million for clients who are not identified in the charging papers. The government did not say how much the CPA firm allegedly took in fees, how much taxes were avoided or how much Social Security and Medicare were shorted.
