Former city of newark police sergeant sentenced to prison for tax evasion
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
March 4, 2011 |
CAMDEN, N.J. – Marion Reynolds, a former sergeant with the City of Newark Police Department, was sentenced today to a year and a day in prison for tax evasion, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.
Reynolds, 44, of Newark, N.J., pleaded guilty on September 8, 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. He entered his guilty plea before U.S. District Judge Jerome B. Simandle, who also imposed the sentence today in Camden federal court.
According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:
In 2001, Reynolds, who at the time of his guilty plea was a 17-year veteran of the City of Newark Police Department, filed an IRS W-4 with his employer, the City of Newark, falsely claiming 99 exemptions from federal income tax withholding. Reynolds admitted that he filed the fraudulent W-4 so that no federal income tax would be withheld from his City of Newark paycheck, and that he kept the form on file with the City of Newark through September 2005.
In 2004 and 2005, Reynolds received wages from the City of Newark in the amount of approximately $129,604 and $145,346, respectively, but failed to pay any federal income tax for those calendar years.
In September 2005, the City of Newark was directed by the IRS to nullify Reynolds’ false claim of 99 exemptions and to begin withholding from his paycheck. In May 2006, Reynolds filed a second fraudulent W-4 with the City of Newark which falsely claimed the exemptions. In 2006, Reynolds received wages from the City of Newark in the amount of approximately $142,741 and failed to pay any federal income tax for that calendar year.
In January 2007, the City of Newark was again directed by the IRS to nullify Reynolds’ false exemptions claim, and in May 2007, Reynolds filed a third fraudulent W-4 with the city which claimed the exemptions. Reynolds admitted that he received wages from the City of Newark in the amount of approximately $140,149 in 2007 and failed to pay any federal income tax for that calendar year.
In addition to the prison term, Judge Simandle sentenced Reynolds to three years of supervised release, as a condition of which Reynolds must cooperate with the IRS to pay back taxes, including interest and penalties.
U.S. Attorney Fishman credited special agents of IRS – Criminal Investigation in Edison, N.J., under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Victor W. Lessoff, with the investigation.
The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Sandra L. Moser of the United States Attorney’s Office Special Prosecutions Division in Newark.
11-094
Defense counsel: Lisa Mack, Esq., Newark, N.J.
