Accountant for Pizza Restaurants Sentenced for Federal Tax Offense

Leonard C Boyle, Acting United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that JAMES G. GUERRA, 59, of Dix Hills, New York, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Victor A. Bolden in Bridgeport to three years of probation, the first two months of which Guerra must spend in home confinement, for a felony tax offense.  Judge Bolden also ordered Guerra to perform 100 hours of community service.

According to court documents and statements made in court, Guerra worked as an accountant for Bruno DeFabio, an owner of several pizza restaurants in Connecticut and New York, including Pinocchio Pizza LLC, doing business as Pinocchio Pizza in New Canaan, Connecticut; Top Oven Restaurant Corp., doing business as Pinocchio Pizza in Wilton, Connecticut; DiFabio Brothers Pizza Corp., doing business as Amore Pizza in Scarsdale, New York; Odell Pizza, Inc., doing business as Amore Cucina and Bar in Stamford, Connecticut; Nepperhan Restaurants Group, Inc., doing business as ReNapoli Pizza, in Old Greenwich, Connecticut, and Homefield Restaurant Corp., doing business as Pinocchio Pizza in Pound Ridge, New York.

DiFabio and his businesses engaged in a practice whereby cash was removed from the cash registers and not deposited into the restaurants’ operating bank accounts, and Guerra knew that DiFabio had a practice of paying his employees in cash.  Although Guerra was aware that DiFabio was failing to collect required withholding taxes from his employees and, in turn, not paying over these taxes to the IRS, Guerra reviewed and approved DiFabio’s quarterly tax returns that DiFabio subsequently signed and filed with the IRS.

On January 25, 2021, Guerra pleaded guilty to one count of assisting the willful failure to collect and pay over withholding taxes.

On October 25, 2018, DiFabio pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to file false income tax returns and payroll tax returns.  On May 6, 2021, he was sentenced to 30 days of imprisonment and ordered to pay $816,954 in restitution.

On September 24, 2018, DiFabio’s business partner in some of his restaurants, Steven Cioffi, pleaded guilty to one count of aiding and assisting in the filing of a false tax return.  On April 27, 2021, Cioffi was sentenced to 30 days of imprisonment and ordered to pay $122,177.59 in restitution.

On June 4, 2019, Idalecia Lopes Santos, the businesses’ bookkeeper, pleaded guilty to one count of tax evasion.  On March 30, 2021, she was sentenced to three years of probation. 

This investigation was conducted by the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation Division.  The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher W. Schmeisser.