Jewelry Manufacturer Pleads Guilty to Tax Evasion

PROVIDENCE – The president and sole owner of a Providence jewelry manufacturing company pleaded guilty on Friday to tax evasion, admitting to the Court that in 2015 he diverted business receipts in order to avoid paying taxes on those receipts.

Byron Urizar, 47, of Lincoln, R.I., President and sole officer of B U, Inc., admitted to the Court that in 2014 and 2015, he diverted a large portion of third-party checks made payable to his business by using a check casher to cash the checks.

Appearing before U.S. District Court Chief Judge William E. Smith, Urizar admitted to using a check casher to cash 268 checks totaling approximately $399,593 in business receipts for the tax year 2015.

Urizar admitted to the Court that he did not inform his accountant that a significant portion of the businesses gross receipts were cashed at the check casher and not deposited into the business bank account.  This ensured that the gross receipts reported on his tax returns were based solely on the deposits he made to the business account and not the checks he had cashed at the check casher.   

Urizar’s guilty plea to tax evasion is announced by United States Attorney Aaron L. Weisman and Kristina O'Connell, Special Agent in Charge of Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation.

Urizar is scheduled to be sentenced on July 19, 2019. Tax evasion is punishable by statutory penalties of up to 5 years imprisonment, 3 years supervised release, and a fine of $250,000 or twice the pecuniary gain or loss.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Dulce Donovan.

The matter was investigated by IRS Criminal Investigation.

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