Salem County, New Jersey, Woman Sentenced To 12 Months In Prison For Filing False Corporate Tax Returns

NEWARK, N.J. – A Salem County, New Jersey, woman was sentenced today to one year and one day in prison for signing false tax returns for shell companies resulting in $286,742 in fraudulent refunds, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito announced.

Marilyn Crespo, 50, of Carney’s Point, New Jersey, previously pleaded guilty before U.S. Chief District Judge Jose L. Linares to an information charging her one count of filing a false corporate tax return for tax year 2009. Judge Linares imposed the sentence today in Newark federal court.

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

Crespo previously resided in Guttenberg, New Jersey. At the direction of her husband, José Crespo, she signed under penalty of perjury numerous false corporate tax returns, Forms 1120, for fake businesses, knowing that the businesses were not real and that the credits claimed on the tax returns were false.

In signing these false tax returns, Marilyn Crespo took advantage of fuel excise tax credits offered under federal tax law. The federal government taxes gasoline, diesel fuel, and certain other types of fuel, but certain commercial uses of these fuels are nontaxable. Businesses that purchase fuel for a nontaxable use can claim a tax credit by filing Form 4136 entitled “Credit for Federal Tax Paid on Fuels.”

Marilyn Crespo signed a federal corporate tax return for 2009 for Magnum Cleaning Service Corp. that claimed gross receipts of $115,027, a fuel excise tax credit of $20,859 and a resulting refund of $15,750. In fact, Magnum was a shell company and the gross receipts and fuel excise tax credit numbers were false. Marilyn Crespo received and cashed the $15,750 refund check at a check-cashing facility in Guttenberg. She cashed many other refund checks for similar false tax returns at this same check-cashing facility.

José Crespo pleaded guilty on Sept. 11, 2017, before Judge Linares, to engaging in the fuel excise tax credit scheme and another tax fraud scheme and causing an anticipated loss to the IRS of nearly $1.5 million. He was sentenced Dec. 20, 2017, to three years in prison.

In addition to the prison term, Judge Linares sentenced Marilyn Crespo to one year of supervised release and ordered her to pay restitution of $286,742.

U.S. Attorney Carpenito credited special agents of IRS-Criminal Investigation, under the direction of Acting Special Agent in Charge Bryant Jackson, with the investigation leading to today’s sentencing.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Rahul Agarwal of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Special Prosecutions Division in Newark.

Defense counsel: Kenneth W. Kayser Esq., East Hanover, New Jersey