Former Accountant for New Jersey Manufacturing Company Sentenced to One Year and One Day in Prison for Criminal Tax Offenses

TRENTON, N.J. – A Middlesex County, New Jersey, man was sentenced today to 12 months and one day in prison for filing false tax returns, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger announced.

Thomas Kohutich, 34, of Woodbridge, New Jersey, previously pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Georgette Castner to a two-count information that charged him with subscribing to false tax returns for calendar years 2018 and 2019. Judge Castner imposed the sentence today in Trenton federal court.

According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:

Kohutich, a former accountant for a New Jersey-based manufacturing company, filed with the IRS U.S. Individual Income Tax Returns, Forms 1040, for calendar years 2018 and 2019 on his and his wife’s behalf. Kohutich failed to report funds that he embezzled from his former employer and which he knew constituted reportable income. Kohutich signed the tax returns under penalties of perjury, despite knowing that they contained materially false information. As part of his plea agreement, Kohutich agreed to pay full restitution to the IRS for tax losses resulting from filing the false tax returns, as well as restitution to his former employer.

In addition to the prison term, Judge Caster sentenced Kohutich to one year of supervised release and ordered Kohutich to pay restitution of $234,821 to the IRS and $829,457 to his former employer.

U.S. Attorney Sellinger credited special agents of IRS – Criminal Investigation, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Jenifer L. Piovesan, with the investigation leading to the  sentence.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Edeli Rivera of the Special Prosecutions Division.