Owner And Operator Of Yonkers Construction Company Pleads Guilty In Manhattan Federal Court To $800,000 Income And Payroll Tax Fraud

Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Shantelle P. Kitchen, the Special Agent in Charge of the New York Field Office of the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation Division (“IRS-CID”), announced today that TARIQ TAHIR, the owner and operator of DNS Construction Corporation, pled guilty today in Manhattan federal court to two counts of tax fraud for failing to pay over $800,000 in income taxes and payroll taxes from 2006 to 2008. TAHIR pled guilty before U.S. District Judge Andrew L. Carter, Jr.

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said: “As a business owner, Tariq Tahir had a responsibility to pay his fair share in taxes. With his guilty plea today, he has acknowledged that he neglected that responsibility and must face the consequences.”

IRS-CI Special Agent in Charge Shantelle P. Kitchen said: “Conducting business in cash for the express purpose of evading taxes does not guarantee that you will avoid detection. Business owners who willfully underreport their business receipts and fail to pay over the correct amount of payroll taxes ultimately place additional burdens on law abiding taxpayers. IRS-Criminal Investigation is committed to ensuring that every taxpayer pays his or her fair share.”

According to the criminal information, other documents filed in Manhattan federal court, and statements made at related court proceedings:

TAHIR owned and operated a Yonkers-based construction company named DNS Construction Corporation (“DNS”). From 2006 through 2008, TAHIR engaged in two tax fraud schemes in order to avoid paying over $800,000 in income taxes and payroll taxes that were due and owing by DNS. To execute the first scheme, TAHIR cashed checks at multiple check-cashing businesses in Manhattan and Brooklyn, rather than depositing those checks into the bank accounts of DNS, so that he could conceal DNS’s true revenues from state and federal tax authorities. To carry out the second scheme, TAHIR paid DNS’s employees primarily in cash so that he would be able to omit these salary payments from DNS’s federal tax returns without detection by tax authorities. By failing to report these payments, TAHIR underpaid the federal payroll taxes due and owing by DNS during this period.

TAHIR, 66, of Yonkers, faces a maximum sentence of three years in prison for each of the tax fraud counts, for a total maximum sentence of six years in prison. As part of his plea agreement, TAHIR is also required to pay more than $771,000 in restitution to the IRS and more than $112,000 in restitution to New York State. He is scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Carter on Friday, June 5, 2015, at 10:00 a.m.

Mr. Bharara praised the work of the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation Division. Mr. Bharara also thanked the U.S. Department of Justice’s Tax Division for their assistance in the investigation.

This case is being handled by the Office’s Complex Frauds and Cybercrime Unit. Assistant United States Attorney Jonathan Cohen is in charge of the prosecution.

U.S. v. Tariq Tahir Information