Eagleville-based pizza maker sentenced for tax fraud

According to a press release issued by the U.S. Attorney General’s Office, Eastern District, United States Attorney William M. McSwain announced that Giuseppe “Pino” DiMeo, 51, of Eagleville, was sentenced to 24 months’ imprisonment and ordered to pay $463,738 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”), for conspiring to defraud the IRS and filing false tax returns. In addition, DiMeo was also sentenced to serve three years of supervised release and ordered to pay a special assessment of $1,100.

DiMeo and his business partners at restaurants defrauded the IRS of income taxes and payroll taxes. From 2008 through 2014, DiMeo took cash from his restaurants and paid many of his employees in cash under the table, then hid his “cash skim” and the cash payroll payments from his accountant and from the IRS in order to evade payment of income and payroll taxes. In total, DiMeo failed to report to the IRS approximately $2,000,000 in gross receipts from his stores.

DiMeo’s cash skim and cash payroll payments occurred at DiMeo’s Pizza of Lafayette Hill, (closed); Pizzeria DiMeo’s of Philadelphia (now sold); Allegro Pizza of Philadelphia, (closed); and DiMeo’s Pizzaiuoli Napulitani of Wilmington, Delaware.

“For years, DiMeo maintained that his businesses were barely profitable, all the while living a lavish lifestyle bankrolled by the money he owed the IRS,” said U.S. Attorney McSwain. “His actions reveal a deliberate disregard for the law. Today’s sentence sends a powerful message to those who cheat the tax system: you will not get away with it.”

“Not only did Giuseppe DiMeo skirt his income tax obligations, he also failed to withhold and remit, to the IRS, income taxes for his employees,” said IRS Criminal Investigation Special Agent in Chart Guy Ficco. “This sentence should serve as a reminder that IRS Criminal Investigation and the Department of Justice have no tolerance for such criminal behavior.”

The case was investigated by the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigations, and was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Maria M. Carrillo and Tiwana L. Wright.

For Digital First Media