POPULAR RIVERDALE RESTAURANT GUILTY OF TAX EVASION
Bronx District Attorney Robert T. Johnson announced today that the owner of Jake’s Steakhouse, a popular restaurant in Riverdale, has pled guilty to evading, approximately, three years of state and city sales taxes, and unemployment insurance premiums.
Margaret Ryan, 55, owner of Jake’s Restaurant, pled guilty to a single count of the New York City Administrative Code 11-4004 (a) False returns or Reports: Corporate Taxes (a Class A Misdemeanor Offense. Prime Cut Realty Corporation, the eatery’s corporate entity, pled guilty to a single count of the New York City Administrative Code 11-40004 (b) False returns or Reports; Corporate Taxes, a Class E felony offense. Both pleas covered tax returns filed for the calendar year 2005. The defendants’ admissions that they had failed to pay taxes owed to the state and city were made before Acting State Supreme Court Justice Steven Barrett.
Ryan surrendered this morning to Bronx District Attorney Detective Investigators Deirdre Johnson and Modesto Acevedo.
Under terms of the plea agreement Ryan, of East Meadow, New York, and Jake’s Steakhouse, at 6031 Broadway, the Bronx, are jointly liable for the payment of a total of some $525,000 in back taxes, fines, and penalties, including back taxes owed to the city and state for 2004 through 2007. The sum of $525,000 was paid prior to today’s court appearance.
The charges, according to court papers, were the result of an audit by the New York City Department of Finance. Auditors reviewed business records, receipts and financial ledgers and discovered discrepancies between the gross sales reported in those records and the sales and profit figures reported on corporate tax returns.
District Attorney Johnson thanked the following for the hard work that resulted in today’s conviction: Martha Stark, Commissioner of the New York City Department of Finance, Michael Hyman, Assistant Commissioner for Tax, Audit, Policy and Enforcement, and members of Hyman’s staff at the New York City Department of Finance, Office of Tax Enforcement, Assistant District Attorney Thomas Kapp, Chief of the Arson /Auto/Economic Crime Bureau, Assistant District Attorney Ann Marie Cherry, of the Arson/Auto/Economic Crimes Bureau and Detective Investigator Henry Nurse, Director of Security.
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