2003-03-05 -- Nunes, Mario -- Sentencing -- News Release

Newark Priest Sentenced to Six Months in Community Correction Center for Committing Tax Evasion

NEWARK - A Newark priest who evaded taxes by failing to report over $68,000 in taxable income for the year 2000 was sentenced today to six months in a community correctional center, three years probation and ordered to pay a $15,000 fine, U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie announced.

Chief U.S. District Judge John W. Bissell denied Mario O. Nunes' motion for a downward departure from U.S. Sentencing Guideliness and ordered him to report on April 21 to begin serving his sentence.

Nunes, the pastor of Our Lady of Fatima Roman Catholic Church in the Ironbound section of Newark, pleaded guilty on Nov. 15, 2002, to a one-count Information charging tax evasion, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Bohdan Vitvitsky.

As set forth in the Information and as Nunes admitted in open court, in 2000 Nunes had obtained $68,811 in income that was in addition to the salary paid to him by Our Lady of Fatima Church. But when filing his Federal income tax return for the year 2000, Nunes did not report the additional $68,811 in income that he had obtained during that year. The income tax owing on this unreported taxable income was $16,965.

Under the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, Judge Bissell determined the sentence of Nunes based upon a formula that takes into account the severity and characteristics of the offense.

Christie credited Special Agents of Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation, under the direction of Anne D. Fahy, Special Agent in Charge, Newark Field Office, and Inspectors from the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, under the direction of Ronald C. Walker, Acting Inspector in Charge, North Jersey-Carribean Division, for developing the case against Nunes.

The Government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Bohdan Vitvitsky, of the U.S. Attorney's Commercial Crimes Unit in Newark.

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Defense Counsel: Joseph A. Hayden, Esq. Roseland

Lawrence S. Horn, Esq. Newark.