Tax Evasion Lands Bridgewater Couple in Prison

A Bridgewater couple was sentenced to prison and supervised release after the two were convicted of failing to pay employment taxes, according to a release from the U.S. Department of Justice.

James and Theresa DeMuro were each sentenced Friday to 44 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, as well as the condition that they pay restitution to the Internal Revenue Service in the amount of $1,337,952.12, the release said.

According to the release, the couple was convicted of one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and 21 counts of willfully failing to pay employment taxes. In April, the release said, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit affirmed the conviction decided by a jury, and remanded the case for sentencing.

The DeMuros were co-owners of an engineering and surveying firm called TAD Associates LLC, the release said. Between 2002 and 2008, they withheld employment taxes from employees' paychecks, but did not pay the more than $546,000 in taxes to the IRS.

In addition, the release said, they operated under the entity name DA Resources Inc., which they closed in an attempt to thwart the IRS when it was looking to collect unpaid employment taxes related to that company.

In the trial, the release said, evidence showed that, from the first quarter of 2007 through the last quarter of 2008, the DeMuros paid employee wages and withheld employment taxes, but did not pay any of that to the U.S. Treasury. In addition, the release said, they withheld funds from paychecks for health insurance, child support and retirement savings accounts, but did not pay those funds to the correct entities either.

The release said evidence also showed that the defendants converted withheld funds for business and personal use, including making purchases of more than $280,000 from QVC, Home Shopping Network and Jewelry Television.

The case was prosecuted by Tax Division Trial Attorneys Tino M. Lisella and Jessica Moran.