Owner of Suburban Chicago Manufacturing Company Guilty of $4.3 Million in Payroll Tax Offenses
CHICAGO — The owner of a suburban Chicago manufacturing company has pleaded guilty to a federal tax offense for withholding millions of dollars in employee payroll taxes but failing to remit the money to the IRS.
As the president and sole owner of Lane Tool & Manufacturing Company Inc. in South Elgin, Ill., EDWARD T. ARNIERI was required to collect, truthfully account for, and pay over to the IRS payroll taxes on wages paid to Lane Tool employees. Although Arnieri issued paychecks to employees reflecting that the company had withheld income and Social Security amounts from their wages, Arnieri willfully failed to pay the money to the IRS. This conduct resulted in tax losses from 2010 to 2018 of more than $3.8 million.
Arnieri’s failure to pay over taxes for employees also resulted in the filing of inaccurate individual tax returns for himself, resulting in additional tax losses of nearly $450,000 from 2010 to 2017.
In total, Arnieri’s tax crimes resulted in total tax losses of more than $4.3 million.
Arnieri, 71, of St. Charles, Ill., pleaded guilty Wednesday to a federal charge of willfully failing to pay over taxes. The conviction is punishable by a maximum sentence of five years in federal prison, plus restitution to the U.S. Treasury and State of Illinois. U.S. District Judge Jorge L. Alonso set sentencing for Sept. 28, 2022.
The guilty plea was announced by John R. Lausch, Jr., United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; and Justin Campbell, Special Agent-in-Charge of the IRS Criminal Investigation Division in Chicago. The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick J. King, Jr.