Port Newark Longshoreman Tax Evasion IRS Plainfield

Jonathan Michael, 55, of Springfield had filed returns and paid his taxes without fail for decades, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a release.

In 2014, however, he gave his employer in the machine shop at the Port Newark Container Terminal a bogus W-4 form, claiming that he was exempt from any federal income tax withholding from his pay, federal authorities said.

The IRS notified Michael in 2016 that he wasn't entitled to exempt status, but he wrote to the company and contended that his bogus W-4 was correct, they said.

The crane mechanic didn't file tax returns for the next seven years, shorting the IRS $656,740 while collecting $2.5 million in income, the Justice Department said.

Michael took his chances with a jury rather than take a plea deal from the government. He was convicted last June of tax evasion and failing to file personal income tax returns.

In addition to the prison sentence, Judge Stephanos Bibas of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ordered Michael to serve three years of supervised release and to pay $378,844 in restitution to the United States.

New Jersey Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew F. Nikic and Trial Attorney Michael C. Vasiliadis of the IRS Tax Division in Washington secured the conviction and sentence with evidence collected by IRS Criminal Investigation in Newark.

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