Date: Feb. 26, 2025
Contact: newsroom@ci.irs.gov
Newark, NJ — A New Jersey man admitted to filing a false tax return and causing more than $200,000 in tax losses for tax year 2018, Acting United States Attorney Vikas Khanna announced.
Francis Esposito of Red Bank, New Jersey, pleaded guilty before United States District Court Judge Georgette Castner in Trenton federal court today to an Information charging him with one count of filing a false tax return.
According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:
Esposito was the sole or majority owner of numerous entities. For tax years 2015 through 2018, Esposito derived certain income through these entities that he failed to report on his Form 1040.
For tax year 2018, Esposito had approximately $719,272 of unreported income, which resulted in a tax loss of approximately $216,635. For tax year 2017, Esposito had approximately $940,978 of unreported income, which resulted in a tax loss of approximately $383,806. For tax year 2016, Esposito had approximately $746,886 of unreported income, which resulted in a tax loss of approximately $304,640. For tax year 2015, Esposito had approximately $589,929 of unreported income, which resulted in a tax loss of approximately $244,291. In total, Esposito’s unreported income resulted in a tax loss of approximately $1,149,372.
The filing a false tax return charge has a maximum term of three years, and a maximum fine of $250,000 or twice the gain or loss resulting from the offense.
Acting United States Attorney Khanna credited special agents of the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Jenifer L. Piovesan in Newark.
The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Vinay Limbachia and Andrew Kogan of the Cybercrime Unit in Newark.
IRS-CI is the criminal investigative arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money-laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more. IRS-CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code, obtaining a 90% federal conviction rate. The agency has 20 field offices located across the U.S. and 14 attaché posts abroad.