Tax fraud charges filed against ex-Ridley official
PHILADELPHIA » Former longtime Ridley Township Tax Collector and Treasurer Rosezanna Czwalina has been charged by federal information with five counts of filing a false tax return for the years 2014 through 2018.
Czwalina, 69, of Morton, did not return a call for comment and her attorney, Eugene Bonner, declined comment on the case Thursday.
The six-page information filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania states that Czwalina maintained three Wells Fargo bank accounts that she used to deposit township tax payments, including tax revenue checks, as well as fees for tax certifications and duplicate bills.
Czwalina, who retired last year after 30 years with the township, remitted the deposits to Ridley Township but kept the fees for tax certifications and duplicate tax bills for her own personal use, the information says.
Czwalina was authorized to retain those funds, but she allegedly failed to report that income on federal tax returns for the five years identified in the information.
According to prosecutors, Czwalina reported income of $56,522 for 2014; $57,924 for 2015; $88,695 for 2016; $180,719 for 2017; and $91,394 for 2018. In each of these years, the information says Czwalina knew the reported amount was false and that the amount of income she realized was greater than she reported.
The information does not state the actual amounts Czwalina allegedly earned in each of those years, however. A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office said Thursday that the dollar amounts of the differences in those years were not available.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney K.T. Newton and has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Paul K. Diamond. No future hearing dates had been set as of Thursday.