News Release
U.S. Department of Justice
United States Attorney
District of Rhode Island
September 17, 2008
South Kingstown mason pleads guilty to tax evasion
Jon Wilk, of Wakefield, pleaded guilty today to income tax evasion, admitting that he failed to report about $648,000 in income that he earned through his masonry company. Wilk admitted that he used a variety of guises to conceal his income, including converting business checks to cash, getting paid personally rather than through the business, and depositing customer checks into his girlfriend’s bank account.
United States Attorney Robert Clark Corrente announced the guilty plea, which Wilk entered today before Chief U.S. District Court Judge Mary M. Lisi in U.S. District Court, Providence.
At the plea hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Lee H. Vilker said the government could prove that Wilk, the sole owner of Independent Chimney and Masonry Construction, had his tax returns prepared by professional accountants, who relied on Wilk’s company bank statements and ledgers that he provided them. For the tax years 2002 -- 2005, the returns that he filed understated his income by $648,545. The IRS has calculated that the amount of tax loss is $192,594.
The Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigations, probed beyond the returns that Wilk filed by contacting businesses and individuals who had paid Wilk or his business for services. Agents determined that, instead of simply depositing checks, he would negotiate the checks and withdraw nearly the entire amount in cash or money orders. Thus the bank
statements that he provided to his accountants reflected only a small portion of the actual payments that he had received.
Wilk also deposited about $84,000 worth of customer checks into bank accounts in his girlfriend’s name, and failed to disclose those receipts to his accountants. And, in 2004, Wilk sent a letter to clients asking that all future checks be made out to him personally rather than to the business.
Wilk, 48, pleaded guilty to one count of tax evasion. The statutory maximum penalty is five years imprisonment and a$100,000 fine. Wilk is free pending sentencing, which is scheduled for January 30, 2009.