Owner Of Northern New Jersey Auto Part Stores Admits Fraud In Tax Returns, Not Including More Than $1.1 Million In Cash Income

TRENTON, N.J. – The owner of several auto parts stores in northern New Jersey admitted today to underreporting on his tax returns more than $1.1 million in cash income that he kept for his personal benefit, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.

Emanuel Marques, of Whippany, N.J., pleaded guilty to an information charging him with one count of subscribing to false personal federal income tax returns. He entered his guilty plea before U.S. District Judge Freda L. Wolfson in Trenton federal court.

According to documents filed in this case and statements made during Marques’s guilty plea proceeding:

Marques admitted that for the tax years 2009 through 2011 he filed U.S. individual income tax returns in which he claimed to report all of his income from his auto parts stores, but which omitted the approximately $1,153,579 in cash he had diverted from the businesses for his personal use. Marques’ intentional failure to disclose true, correct and complete information to the IRS resulted in a tax loss to the United States of approximately $375,869.

As part of his guilty plea, Marques has agreed to make full restitution to the IRS for all losses resulting from his filing of false tax returns. He has also agreed to forfeit $1 million in a related civil case with the U.S. Attorney’s office.

The subscribing to false tax returns charge carries a maximum potential penalty of three years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Sentencing is currently scheduled for Sept. 18, 2013.

U.S. Attorney Fishman credited special agents of IRS-Criminal Investigation, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Shantelle Kitchen, for the investigation leading to today’s guilty plea.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Evan S. Weitz of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Unit.       

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Defense counsel: George Schneider Esq., Newark

Marques, Emanuel Information