A well-known chain of Philly cheesesteak restaurants was just charged with tax theft. The people who owned the Philly cheesesteak chain Tony Luke’s went to jail for tax fraud after being caught hiding $8 million that they said had been saved up for ten years.
Nicholas Lucidonio (57 years old) and Anthony Lucidonio Sr. (84 years old) were both given 20 months in prison and three years of controlled release after the 20 months were over. Tony Luke’s was in South Philadelphia, and they both owned it.
Between 2006 and 2016, the two men hid tax money worth more than $8 million. The United States lost a lot of money because they hid their income and employee pay. This got them charged with tax fraud.
In the end, they only paid part of the money, which meant their accountant had to file false tax returns because they were given incomplete or wrong information. The other crime they were found guilty of was employment tax theft because they paid their workers cash “under the table.”
They did this by giving their workers some of their pay on paper and the rest of it in cash under the table. This way, they wouldn’t have to pay any taxes, Social Security, or Medicare taxes on it. This is how the information was given to the accountant, which caused the accountant to make quarterly taxes that were wrong.
All of this came to light in 2015 when the Lucidonias and someone else got into a fight over leasing rights. The Lucidonias were worried that their tax fraud case would become public. So, they chose to hide proof of their payroll tax plan. The United States lost more than $1,300,000 because of the two men’s plans.
