A White Plains businessman lowered his personal taxes, as well as the taxes for his business and for a relative he employed, in a check cashing scheme allegedly devised by his tax accountants.
Marc Klahr pled guilty to conspiracy to defraud the IRS and to subscribing to false tax returns, Aug. 8 in U.S. District Court in White Plains. His relative, Jared Rothstein, pled guilty to the same charges on Aug. 9.
Klahr is president of Klahr Glass Co. in White Plains.
In 2013, according to court records, partners in a Westchester CPA firm that handled the company’s taxes proposed that Klahr and Rothstein participate in a scheme that would enable them to receive company money without incurring personal tax liability.
The CPA firm and the partners who allegedly proposed the scheme are not identified in the court records.
The proposal, according to the government, was for Klahr and Rothstein to issue company checks to a shell company but give the checks to the CPA partners. The partners would cash the checks at a check cashing service, take a fee, and return the rest to Klahr and Rothstein to be divided evenly.
Klahr and Rothstein did not report the income on their state and federal tax returns, according to court records, and they made sure that the checks were recognized as business expenses, thereby reducing the company’s income tax liability.
From late 2013 to early 2017, Klahr and Rothstein gave the CPA partners more than 50 checks issued by Klahr Glass Co. to a shell company specified by the CPA partners, according to court records, totaling $432,555.
In February 2017, for instance, Rothstein issued a check drawn on a Klahr Glass bank account and made payable to Tios Construction Corp. for $8,900.
Both men were released from custody on posting unsecured $200,000 appearance bonds. Klahr was ordered to surrender his passport Aug. 28, the day after he returns from a nine day trip to Italy, and he was authorized to take trips to Hawaii in October and Portugal in November.
Rothstein was restricted to home detention while not working or while not participating in religious or education activities or medical and legal obligations.
Klahr is represented by Yonkers attorney Joshua D. Martin, and Rothstein is represented by White Plains attorney Pat Bonanno. The government’s case is being handled by assistant federal prosecutors James F. McMahon and Jeffrey Coffman.
