Brooklyn Business Owner Pleads Guilty in Employment Tax Scheme

A Brooklyn, New York, business owner pleaded guilty today in the Eastern District of New York to failing to pay over employment taxes to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard E. Zuckerman of the Justice Department’s Tax Division. 

From 2011 through 2014, Michael Jaramillo (Jaramillo), 49, was the president, part owner and sole operator of MT Electric Corp. (MT Electric), a business in Brooklyn.  During this time, Jaramillo cashed business receipt checks at a local check casher and used the cash to pay employees more than $3 million in wages “under the table.”  Jaramillo also filed false employment tax returns, which failed to report the cash wages and the employment taxes due.  Jaramillo admitted that he caused a tax loss of approximately $453,460.

The Honorable Kiyo A. Matsumoto scheduled sentencing for Nov. 21, 2019.  Jaramillo faces a statutory maximum sentence of five years in prison, as well as restitution and monetary penalties.

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Zuckerman commended special agents of IRS-Criminal Investigation, who conducted the investigation, and Trial Attorneys Jessica Moran and Kathryn Sparks of the Tax Division, who prosecuted this case.

Additional information about the Tax Division and its enforcement efforts may be found on the division’s website.