Indicted former mayor of toms river, n.J., pleads guilty to federal tax charges
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
December 17, 2012 |
NEWARK, N.J. – Carmine C. Inteso Jr., the former mayor of Toms River, N.J., today pleaded guilty to tax evasion, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.
Inteso, who was arrested in July 2012 after returning from Afghanistan, where he had been working as a contractor, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Joel A. Pisano in Trenton federal court to Count One of a six-count Indictment.
Inteso allegedly took a job in Afghanistan after learning he was the target of the tax investigation and, after returning to the United States, was taken into custody at New York’s John F. Kennedy International airport.
According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:
From 2002 through 2007, Inteso held the positions of Township Committee member, mayor, deputy mayor, and councilman for the Township of Toms River, formerly known as Dover Township.
Beginning in 2005 and continuing through 2008, Inteso accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments from Francis X. Gartland, 71, of Baltimore, Md., an insurance broker whose companies provided insurance brokerage services for New Jersey municipal entities – including the Brick Township Board of Education and the Township of Toms River. Inteso directed Gartland to make the payments to a company Inteso controlled and that had ceased operating by 2007. Gartland pleaded guilty to charges of mail fraud, conspiracy to defraud the IRS, and perjury and was recently sentenced to 135 months in prison.
Inteso used the funds to pay for his personal expenses and withdrew significant amounts of cash. Despite receiving approximately $291,000 in income from the insurance broker during calendar years 2006, 2007 and 2008, Inteso failed to file personal income taxes for those years.
The count of tax evasion to which Inteso pleaded guilty is punishable by a maximum potential penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Sentencing is scheduled for April 22, 2013.
U.S. Attorney Fishman credited special agents of IRS – Criminal Investigation, under the direction of Acting Special Agent in Charge Shantelle P. Kitchen; and special agents of the FBI, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Michael B. Ward, with the investigation leading to the Indictment. The Office of International Affairs in the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and the Diplomatic Security Service’s Regional Security Office in Kabul, Afghanistan provided invaluable assistance.
The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Lee M. Cortes Jr., of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Special Prosecutions Division in Newark.
The charges and allegations contained in the Indictment are merely accusations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
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Defense counsel: Linda Foster Esq., Assistant Federal Public Defender, Newark
