Business owner sentenced to prison and ordered to pay over $145,432 in restitution

 

Date: December 21, 2021

Contact: newsroom@ci.irs.gov

HAMMOND — Daniel Urquiza, of Burr Ridge, Illinois, was sentenced by United States District Court Chief Judge Jon E. DeGuilio today following his June 2021 guilty plea for evading assessment of federal income taxes, announced United States Attorney Clifford D. Johnson.

Urquiza was sentenced to 6 months in prison and 6 months of home detention. He was also ordered to pay $145,432 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service.

According to court documents, between 2014 and 2018, Urquiza concealed over $700,000 in income from the IRS. During this time, Urquiza owned and operated Lost Marsh Restaurant and RSR Demolition LLC, two businesses that received most of its revenue from contracts with the City of Hammond, the Hammond Port Authority, and other local government entities. In addition to issuing himself a salary, Urquiza spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on personal expenses from the proceeds of these businesses and from his family's business, Meyer's Castle, an event venue in Dyer, Indiana. In tax years 2014 through 2016, Urquiza issued himself falsified W-2 forms and filed false federal tax returns that did not include his personal spending from the business revenue. Urquiza did not file federal tax returns for tax years 2017 and 2018.

This case was investigated by Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation. This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Abizer Zanzi.