Former city of newark police officer sentenced for tax evasion
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
March 23, 2011 |
NEWARK, N.J. – Gregory Bibb, a former police officer with the City of Newark Police Department, was sentenced today to five years of probation – including six months of home confinement with electronic monitoring – for tax evasion, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.
Bibb, 35, of District Heights, Md., and formerly of Newark, pleaded guilty on October 7, 2010, to evading the assessment and payment of income tax by maintaining a fraudulent IRS W-4 Form with his employer and failing to file a U.S. individual income tax return with the IRS. Bibb entered his guilty plea before U.S. District Judge William H. Walls, who also imposed the sentence today in Newark federal court.
According to the Information to which Bibb pleaded guilty, other documents filed in this case, and statements made in court:
In 2001, Bibb filed an IRS W-4 form with his employer, the City of Newark, falsely claiming 99 exemptions from federal income tax withholding. Bibb admitted that he filed the fraudulent form so that no federal income tax would be withheld from his City of Newark paycheck. Bibb maintained the fraudulent form on file with the City of Newark through September 2005.
Bibb admitted that he failed to pay any federal income tax for the calendar year 2004. He also admitted that he received wages from the City of Newark in the amount of approximately $90,029 in 2005 and failed to pay any federal income tax for that calendar year.
In September 2005, the City of Newark was directed by the IRS to nullify Bibb’s false claim of 99 exemptions and to begin withholding federal income tax from his paycheck. However, in July 2006, Bibb filed a second fraudulent W-4 with the City of Newark, again falsely claiming 99 exemptions from withholding in order to prevent the assessment of federal income taxes. Bibb admitted that he also failed to pay any federal income tax for 2006.
Bibb is the fourth former Newark police officer to be sentenced as a result of an IRS investigation into tax evasion in connection with the submission of false W-4 forms to the City of Newark.
In addition to the term of probation and home confinement, Bibb is required to pay $62,516, which represents the total tax loss to the IRS.
U.S. Attorney Fishman credited special agents with IRS – Criminal Investigation in Edison, N.J., under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Victor W. Lessoff, with the investigation leading to today’s sentence.
The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Sandra L. Moser of the United States Attorney’s Office Special Prosecutions Division in Newark.
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Defense counsel: Chester Keller, Esq., Newark, N.J.
