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Press Release

Former Traffic Safety Service LLC Vice President Pleads Guilty To Tax Evasion

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, District of New Jersey

NEWARK, N.J. – A former vice president at a South Plainfield, N.J., traffic safety equipment business admitted today to evading income taxes on more than $2 million in withdrawals he made from the business for his own use, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.

Anthony R. Pecoraro, 50, of Colts Neck, N.J., pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge William H. Walls to an information charging him with one count of tax evasion.

According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:

Pecoraro worked in 2008 and 2009 at Traffic Safety Service LLC, which provided traffic safety equipment and other traffic related services to local and state municipalities and private businesses. In connection with his position as a vice president, he had access to the company’s business account.

During his guilty plea proceeding, Pecoraro admitted he wrote checks for unauthorized cash withdrawals for a total of approximately $2,126,200 between June 2008 and December 2009, which he took for personal use. Pecoraro acknowledged he failed to report this money as taxable income for calendar years 2008 and 2009 in the amounts of $563,800 and $1,562,400, respectively, and that if he had reported the additional cash on his income tax returns he would have owed the government approximately $733,970.

The charge to which Pecoraro pleaded guilty carries a maximum potential penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 4, 2013.

U.S. Attorney Fishman credited special agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Homeland Security Investigations, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Andrew M. McLees in Newark; and IRS-Criminal Investigation, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Shantelle P. Kitchen, with the investigation.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Lakshmi Srinivasan Herman of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Economic Crimes Unit in Newark.

13-351                                                

Defense counsel: John McDonald Esq., Somerville, N.J.

Pecoraro, Anthony Information

Updated August 20, 2015