Chappaqua businessman accused of $400,000 tax evasion

A Chappaqua businessman allegedly used $1.5 million from family businesses to underwrite a lavish lifestyle and evade nearly $400,000 in federal income taxes.

U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman accused Antonio Nikc of tax evasion in a court filing March 3 in federal court in White Plains.

Nikc “ran these businesses and managed his personal finances in a manner designed to conceal his sources of income and prevent the IRS from calculating or assessing his tax due,” the government claims.

The family companies operate large rental buildings in New York and Connecticut, including Southwood Gardens LLC, Waterbury Ridgegate LLC and Nikac Enterprises (using a different spelling of the family”™s surname).

The businesses are based at Prospect Towers apartment building in Waterbury, Connecticut.

The feds claim that Nikc treated the businesses”™ bank accounts as personal accounts, to pay for oceanside condominiums in Miami, marina fees for a boat docked in Miami, airline tickets, luxury car payments, college tuition for his children, jewelry, clothing and restaurants.

He allegedly failed to file income tax returns for 2010 through 2014 and paid no income taxes for those years. As he was using business funds to pay personal expenses, the government alleges, he concealed income by not maintaining assets in his own name.

The government claims he should have paid $395,745 in federal income taxes over the five-year period.

Nikc pleaded guilty at his arraignment. Magistrate Judge Lisa M. Smith released him on a $100,000 personal recognizance bond and ordered him to continue with mental health treatment, as a condition of release.

Nikc”™s attorney, David A. Ring of New Haven, declined to discuss the case.

In 1996, Nikc was tragically enmeshed in an Albanian blood feud.

Nikc witnessed his pregnant wife, Rigaletta Nikc, 31, and his father, Marc Nikac, 58, killed by Nikc’s cousin, Gjelosh Rukaj, in the driveway of the family’s Chappaqua home.

Rigaletta Nikc and Rukaj had been lovers, according to news accounts, and in 1991 she gave birth to their daughter. They agreed to keep the child’s paternity a secret, but in 1996 Rukaj filed a paternity suit.

Antonio, who was in the driveway during the shooting, managed to get inside the house unscathed. Rukaj was shot in the chest and drove himself to the New Castle police station to report the shooting.

Rukaj’s lawyer claimed that his client was lured to the home and ambushed because he had filed the paternity suit and dishonored the Nikcs.

Rukaj was found guilty of murder in 1998 and sentenced to prison for 20 years to life. He has been released from custody, according to a New York inmate record.