Business owner jailed for tax fraud

Giuseppe “Pino” DiMeo, 51, of Eagleville, was sentenced to 24 months in federal prison and ordered to pay $463,738 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service for conspiring to defraud the IRS and filing false tax returns, authorities announced Tuesday.

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, according to a press release issued by the U.S. Attorney General’s Office for the Eastern District in Philadelphia.

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, U.S. Attorney

William M. McSwain said in the release.

In total, DiMeo failed to report to the IRS approximately $2 million 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, Del.

“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,” McSwain said. “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,” IRS Criminal Investigation Special Agent in Chart Guy Ficco said. “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.