Two Eastchester accountants have admitted their roles in a tax fraud scheme that allowed corporate clients to avoid tax liability by sending company checks to the accountants and getting cash in return that they never reported. Jack Sardis, 66, of Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, pleaded guilty Wednesday in White Plains federal court to conspiracy to defraud the Internal Revenue Service. His partner in Sanossian Sardis & Co. LLC, George Sanossian, 70, of Scarsdale, pleaded guilty to the same charge last week. The two have agreed to pay the amount in lost taxes, $652,883.60, as restitution to the IRS and New York State.
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a press release that the case should serve “as a reminder to all Americans that they are required to truthfully report their earnings.” “Schemes to conceal and reduce federal income and payroll tax liability, such as those utilized by Sardis and Sanossian, are unfair to every taxpayer who obeys the law and pays their fair share,” IRS Criminal Investigation Special Agent in Charge Thomas Fattorusso said in a statement.
Before the accountants were arrested in February, the owner of Klahr Glass Co. and a relative who worked for him pleaded guilty last summer to their involvement in the scheme. Marc Klahr and Jared Rothstein admitted splitting more than $432,000 that they received between 2013 and 2017 after sending more than 50 checks from Klahr’s White Plains company to shell companies controlled by Sanossian and Sardis.
How the tax fraud scheme worked
According to court documents, the accountants would keep a fee each time they returned money. The clients used the cash they received either for themselves, without reporting it as personal taxable income, or to pay employees without reporting it as a payroll cost, thereby reducing their corporate tax liability. In total, Sanossian and Sardis were accused of cashing more than $2 million in checks and returning the money to clients. How much money the accountants kept in fees was not disclosed and the total number of clients who benefited from the scheme was also not revealed. Whether any other business owners have faced criminal charges in the case has not been made public.
Sanossian and Sardis are scheduled to be sentenced in September and face up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Sentencing dates were not available for Klahr and Rothstein, who each pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the IRS and making and subscribing to false tax returns.
