Victor Aguayo, owner and president of Mabel Interior Design Inc., an interior painting business in Westbury, New York, pleaded guilty today to employment tax crimes. Aguayo admitted to failing to collect and pay over employment taxes from his employees’ wages, resulting in significant tax losses to the federal government.

According to court documents and statements made in court, Aguayo was responsible for withholding Social Security, Medicare, and federal income taxes from the wages of his employees and reporting these withholdings to the IRS on a quarterly basis. Additionally, he was required to pay these withheld taxes to the IRS quarterly.

Instead, Aguayo paid his employees approximately $3.6 million in cash wages, failing to withhold or remit the required taxes. He also caused false quarterly tax returns to be filed, omitting the cash wages from the company’s tax filings. This scheme resulted in a tax loss to the IRS of $545,743.

Aguayo is scheduled to be sentenced on April 21, 2025. He faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison, along with a period of supervised release, restitution, and monetary penalties. A federal district court judge will determine the final sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other relevant statutory factors.

Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stuart M. Goldberg of the Justice Department’s Tax Division announced the guilty plea.

The case was investigated by IRS Criminal Investigation and is being prosecuted by Assistant Chief Sarah Ranney and Trial Attorney Joseph D.G. Castro of the Justice Department’s Tax Division.

This article, “New York Business Owner Pleads Guilty to Employment Tax Fraud” was first published on Small Business Trends