Carting company tax cheat sentenced to federal prison

A former carting company executive who cheated on his taxes and diverted more than $800,000 in company funds to pay for extravagant strip club charges and other personal expenses has been sentenced to federal prison for a year and a day.

U.S. District Judge Cathy Seibel also ordered Christopher Oxer, 37, of Darien, Connecticut, to pay a $20,000 fine and $275,780 in restitution, April 28 in federal court White Plains. He will be put on parole for one year after he is released from prison.

Last year, Oxer pled guilty to three counts of subscribing to false tax returns, in a plea deal with prosecutors.

He was general manager of City Carting of Westchester, a Rye Brook company that held county contracts to operate transfer stations, a recycling center and a landfill. The company was owned by his father, Robert, and an uncle (or, according to Oxer’s attorneys, his father’ business partner who is like an uncle).

He got caught in 2021 by Kroll Associates, a Manhattan firm that monitored the company for Westchester County to ensure compliance with civil and criminal laws.

Kroll found credit card transactions for charges at Larry Flynt’s Hustler Club, Prime 333 at Sapphire and Sapphire Times Square in Manhattan that were classified as business expenses for tires, equipment maintenance and tolls.

One strip club visit, according to court records, cost $40,000. Investigators also found charges for escorts, international vacations, clothing and expenses for Oxer’s consulting business, New England Waste Services.

As general manager, Oxer was “uniquely situated” to divert company funds, assistant prosecutor Jennifer N. Ong stated in a sentencing letter to Judge Seibel. He oversaw the bookkeeping and categorized credit charges on the monthly ledger.

From 2017 to 2019, he failed to report $808,753 in credit card charges as income on his personal tax returns, resulting in tax losses of $275,780.

Oxer’s attorneys, Andrew C. Quinn and Steven J. Bushnell, attributed his conduct to addictions, anxiety and poor choices.

Oxer believed he was overworked, underpaid and underappreciated, according to their sentencing memorandum. He started drinking heavily and using cocaine and descended into a downward spiral.

His actions were not meant to cheat the government, his attorneys said, but to “enrich himself and feed his addictions.”

When he got caught, he freely admitted his misdeeds, accepted full responsibility, and sought treatment for his addictions, the memo states.

The impact of his poor choices was devastating.

“He has brought shame to his name and reputation,” the memo states.

His father and uncle were forced to sell the business. His father repaid the company for its losses, and Oxer is repaying his father “as much as he can.” Oxer has sold his house in Darien to cover restitution payments: $233,134 to the IRS and $42,646 to the New York Department of Taxation and Finance.

But through “hard work and the acknowledgment of his demons,” his lawyers claim, “he had remained sober and successfully turned his life around.”

He is managing his consulting business and helping manage DeYulio Sausage Company, a 112-year-old enterprise named after his mother’s side of the family.

He intends to move in with his parents, his lawyers said, to take care of them and monitor their health.

The U.S. Probation Office recommended a prison sentence of 30 months, and Oxer agreed in his plea deal that the non-mandatory federal sentencing guidelines called for 30 to 37 months.

His attorney’s asked Judge Seibel to impose no prison time, “to achieve a just disposition,” citing his repentance, dedication as a volunteer firefighter, charitable works, supportive family, and low to nonexistent risk of reoffending.

Assistant prosecutor Ong recommended imprisonment within the 30 to 37 month guidelines.

She noted that the financial reward of tax fraud is high but the chance of being caught and successfully prosecuted is low.

“A non-custodial sentence here would provide a would-be tax cheat every incentive to orchestrate a tax fraud scheme,” she wrote. “Respectfully, that is not the message this court should send to the public.”

Judge Seibel ordered Oxer to surrender to the Bureau of Prisons on June 15.