David B. Fein, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that STAVROS GANIAS, also known as Steve Ganias, 69, of Wallingford, was sentenced today by Senior United States District Judge Ellen Bree Burns in New Haven to 24 months of imprisonment, followed by three years of supervised release, for evading payment of more than $160,000 in federal income taxes.
           
On April 4, 2011, a jury found GANIAS guilty of two counts of tax evasion.  According to the evidence disclosed during the trial, GANIAS operated Taxes International in Wallingford, through which he has provided accounting, bookkeeping, and tax preparation services for numerous individuals and small business clients.  Prior to 1986, when he founded Taxes International, GANIAS served as an IRS Auditor and International Examiner, auditing Fortune 1000 companies in Connecticut and their foreign subsidiaries.
           
In 1998, GANIAS and Taxes International began providing services to Industrial Property Management, Inc. (“IPM”), which was responsible for security and maintenance at the Stratford Army Engine Plant under a contract with the U.S. Army.  Between 1999 and 2003, GANIAS earned annual fees in excess of $100,000 from IPM, as well as income from other clients.  However, rather than reporting all of the income he earned from IPM and other clients on his federal income tax returns, GANIAS recorded significant portions of it in his own books as non-income, claiming it was petty cash that he deposited into the bank or that it was an owner’s infusion of capital into his business, Taxes International.
           
For the 1999 through 2003 tax years, GANIAS reported less than half of his true taxable income, underpaying his tax liability by approximately $164,351.  Today, Judge Burns ordered GANIAS to pay restitution in the amount of $69,842, which represents his underpayment of taxes for the 2002 and 2003 tax years.
           
This matter was investigated by the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation and the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division.  The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Calvin B. Kurimai and Anastasia E. King.

PUBLIC AFFAIRS CONTACT:

U.S. ATTORNEY'S OFFICE
Tom Carson
(203) 821-3722
thomas.carson@usdoj.gov

 

 

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