Broome County business owner pleads guilty to tax fraud

 

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Date: March 1, 2022

Contact: newsroom@ci.irs.gov

Nezir "Nick" Boljevic, of Broome County, New York, waived indictment and pled guilty today in federal court in Binghamton to one felony count of willful failure to pay federal payroll taxes, announced United States Attorney Carla B. Freedman and Thomas Fattorusso, Executive Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation Division (IRS-CI), New York Field Office.

In pleading guilty, Boljevic admitted that from 2007 through 2017, while he owned and operated Vestal Diner in Vestal, New York, he failed to make payroll tax payments to the government with respect to his employees, including for Social Security and Medicare taxes. Boljevic withheld the payroll taxes from his employees' paychecks but did not report the withholdings or turn the money over to the Internal Revenue Service. To avoid IRS collection efforts, Boljevic repeatedly put Vestal Diner in the names of a series of nominee owners with different Employer Identification Numbers for tax purposes, even though Boljevic remained the true owner and operator of Vestal Diner. In total, Boljevic failed to pay approximately $322,516.51 in payroll taxes to the Internal Revenue Service between 2007 and 2017. Boljevic no longer owns or operates Vestal Diner.

Sentencing is scheduled for July 6, 2022. If the Court accepts the parties' plea agreement, the defendant will receive a sentence of 1 year and 1 day in prison and will pay $322,516.51 in restitution to the IRS.

This case is being investigated by Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation Division (IRS-CI), and it is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael F. Perry.