Guilford accountant pleads guilty to tax evasion, to repay $1.1M

EAST HAVEN — A Guilford accountant has pleaded guilty to tax evasion in a case in which the government says he owes more than $1.1 million, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Connecticut.

Louis DeMaio, 69, also pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in New Haven to one count of impeding the due administration of Internal Revenue laws, federal authorities said in a release. DeMaio faces up to five years in prison on the tax evasion charge and up to three years in prison for the impeding charge.

The government lost a total of $1,132,398 in taxes because of DeMaio’s actions, authorities said. He has agreed to repay the figure in full, as well as interest and penalties.

DeMaio evaded taxes while he was “employed as an accountant in East Haven and, from approximately 2010 to 2018,” effectively running Almatt LLC, “a temporary employment agency that provided day laborers to construction companies,” although he was not listed as the company’s owner, federal authorities said in the release.

“As part of Almatt’s operating procedures, Almatt invoiced construction companies for the cost of labor provided and, from the payments received from the companies, paid the employees for services rendered. Almatt and

DeMaio then provided the employees with W-2 forms reflecting that Almatt had undertaken required federal tax withholdings,” federal authorities said in the release, citing court documents and statements made in court.

“However, Almatt and DeMaio failed to withhold taxes and subsequently failed to pay over those withholdings to the IRS. Almatt also never filed yearly income tax returns or quarterly 941 forms reflecting federal withholding and payroll taxes owed,” the release said.

DeMaio also “issued hundreds of thousands of dollars of checks from Almatt made out to himself and to family members who did not work at the business,” authorities said in the release.

“From 2010 through 2018, DeMaio and his family received more than $2.5 million from Almatt. DeMaio failed to report any of these distributions on his federal personal income tax returns,” authorities said in the release.

The Internal Revenue Service began examining Almatt in 2015, then turned its attention to DeMaio as well, authorities said.

When “confronted” by tax officials, DeMaio “fabricated a story that a substantial portion of the payments he received from Almatt were loan repayments” from its listed owner, authorities said.

He then “provided an IRS revenue agent with a false notarized document ... created to support his story,” authorities said in the release.

DeMaio is free on a $100,000 bond, authorities said. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 3.