Baltimore, Maryland - U.S. District Judge Catherine C. Blake sentenced Gino M. Jones, age 49, of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, formerly of Cambridge, Mt. Airy and Denton, Maryland, to 15 months in prison, followed by one year of supervised release, for failure to file income tax returns for 2001 and 2002, announced United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein.

“IRS-Criminal Investigation is committed to aggressively pursuing those taxpayers who willfully fail to file their tax returns,” stated C. André Martin, Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation Special Agent in Charge. “Part of the IRS-Criminal Investigation's mission is to assure those honest taxpayers that everyone pays their fair share.”

According to his plea agreement, from 2000 to 2002, Jones operated a used car business under different names including City Wide Public Auto Auction, Inc. Jones used eBay to sell his used cars, which he purchased from auction sales, refurbished and then resold on eBay. The IRS analyzed the data kept by eBay to determine the profits Jones received from his sales of cars, as well as bank and business records of third parties to corroborate its analysis of eBay records.

The IRS concluded that the records showed that: in 2001 Jones earned $200,292 from car sales of which $135,591 was taxable income with a tax owed of $31,828; in 2002 Jones earned $219,667 from car sales of which $156,627 was taxable income with a tax owed of $37,399. Jones failed to file tax returns for 2001 and 2002, and accordingly, failed to pay a total federal income tax of $69,227 for the two years.

United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein thanked the Internal Revenue Service - Criminal Investigation for its investigative work and commended Assistant United States Attorney Stephen M. Schenning, who prosecuted the case.