Date: October 24, 2022 Contact: newsroom@ci.irs.gov DURANGO — The U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Colorado announced that Kenneth and Suzanne Fusco of Durango, Colorado pleaded guilty to federal income tax evasion on October 13, 2022. According to the plea agreement, the defendants jointly operated a restaurant in downtown Durango, Colorado. During the tax years 2014 through 2019, the defendants willfully overstated their business expenses to reduce their tax liability. Specifically, the defendants categorized personal expenses as "customer supplies" on their accounting software, which was then transmitted to tax professionals to be filed with the Internal Revenue Service. The couple also provided a signed statement to their tax professionals indicating that the information they were providing was "complete and correct to the best of our knowledge," when in fact the defendants knew they were not providing accurate information and had unreported business income totaling $933,586. This resulted in a tax loss to the government of $160,536. The Fuscos face a prison sentence ranging from 12 to 41 months, restitution in the amount of $160,536, and a fine of $5,500 to $55,000, plus interest and penalties. A sentencing hearing is scheduled for February 6, 2023. This case was investigated by the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Nikki Cassidy and Jeffrey Graves handled the prosecution.
