A former trader for Swiss/Re pleaded guilty to tax evasion in a scheme where, according to the Daily News, he said "he was single and living in London when he really lived with his wife in the Village." Llewellyn Connolly was trying to avoid paying about $1 million in taxes for 2007 and 2008, but now he'll have to pay $2,642,018 in back taxes and penalties—plus pay a $350,000 fine and serve 300 hours of community service. But $3+ million and 300 hours of community service is worth not going to prison, right? more ›

The 80-year-old owner of Upper East Side Italian Il Vagabondo pled guilty yesterday to federal tax evasion charges. Ernest Vogliano, whose restaurant boasts a bocce court, stashed nearly $5 million in Swiss accounts and filed some false returns in the last decade. Worse, he admitted in court that he "knew at the time that what [he] was doing was wrong and illegal." Worse still, the scam that he has agreed to pay more than $940,000 in penalties for pulling saved him less than $13k in the first place! Beyond the fees, Vogliano faces up to a year in jail when he is sentenced in March. more ›

Rapper, actor and sometime Wu-Tang Clan member Method Man pleaded guilty today to a tax evasion charge stemming from years prior, and was sentenced to a conditional discharge at Staten Island Criminal Court. Method Man, real name Clifford Smith, turned himself in last October after he realized he had failed to pay state and personal income taxes from 2004 through 2007. He owed approximately $106,000 in back taxes coupled with interest and penalties, but has now paid that amount back in full. more ›

It's tax time and the Finance Department wants big-time evaders to pay up. To that end, it's asked the IRS to hand over a list of rich city dwellers outed for keeping funds in Switzerland's UBS bank. Last year the offshore money repository was forced to give clients' names to the IRS and fined. So far it's unclear how many New Yorkers are enumerated on the list, but according to the Post many of the offenders are thought to live here. "Presumably, they haven't paid taxes for some period of time," said Finance Commissioner David Frankel more ›

Rep. Charles Rangel is the Teflon Rep! Even though he apparently knows nothing about paying his own taxes, he's keeping the chairmanship of the House Ways and Means Committee—which is involved with the country's tax code! more ›

Method Man, a member of Staten Island's hip-hop group Wu-Tang Clan, was arrested yesterday for tax evasion. He turned himself to the 120th Precinct and when he was taken to his arraignment, he used a copy of "Ultimate X-Men" to cover his face. Really—video below. more ›

Back in 2005, it was the biggest residential land deal in the history of the city—Hudson Waterfront Associates, the Hong Kong-based consortium that worked with Donald Trump to develop and market the massive Trump Place development on the West Side, sold a 77 acre parcel of land to Extell for $1.76 billion. Now the Manhattan DA's office revealed it just arrested the project director for tax evasion and are looking into whether Hudson Waterfront evaded taxes on a $17 million portion of deal. more ›

The owner of a popular bar and restaurant near Yankee Stadium was charged with allegedly evading over $1 million in state and city taxes. Joe Bastone, who is also president of the Yankee Tavern on 161st Street in the Bronx, was being investigated by the Department of Finance for two years; the DOF looked at five years worth of business records, customer receipts and more. The NY Times notes, "Because of its proximity to Yankee Stadium, and its history as a haunt for New York Yankee legends past and present, including Babe Ruth, the tavern has long been a popular watering hole for the team’s fans." Bastone pleaded not guilty to the charges, which include grand larceny and false returns, but sources tell NY1 that his lawyers are looking to make a deal with prosecutors. more ›

Former police commissioner Bernard Kerik pleaded not guilty to additional charges at his arraignment in federal court yesterday. The Daily News reports the new charges accuse him of "falsifying income tax records and not declaring a BMW luxury car he got as payment for consulting services." Kerik was previously indicted on 16 other charges, including conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud, tax fraud and making false statements (to the Department of Homeland Security), last year. Kerik had requested his DHS-related trial be moved from Washington D.C. to White Plains, but White Plains Federal Court Judge Stephen Robinson shot that down for now. Kerik is due back in court in February. more ›

After a week of defending his years of missed tax payments as the amount he owed only grew from what originally revealed, Governor Paterson's top adviser Charles O'Byrne resigned yesterday. The governor accepted the letter of resignation from his closest aide "with regret" after publicly defending O'Byrne who had been lambasted by the NY Post and others in the press for claiming his depression and "non-filer syndrome" had led to years of tax delinquency that totaled over $300,000. more ›

Newsday is reporting that beloved coal-oven pizza institution Grimaldi’s was shut down today by the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance. The paper's website has it that the Brooklyn restaurant was seized because of over $150,000 in tax warrants. Agency spokesman Tom Bergin told Newsday that Grimaldi's has been in a dispute with tax officials over allegedly unpaid state sales and withholding taxes for two years. more ›

Illegally renting subleased apartments as hotel rooms is nothing new, but Raziel Ofer, who "controlled hundreds of units at swanky uptown addresses" (at Woogo.com), was caught by Manhattan prosecutors because he never paid over $1 million in sales tax to the city and state. D'oh! He also apparently "evaded up to $2 million in other fees"; Ofer pleaded guilty and now faces between 8 1/3 to 25 years in prison. Manhattan DA Robert Morgenthau groused, "Illegal hotels are getting to be a major problem." more ›

A grand jury voted to indict former police commissioner Bernard Kerik on federal corruption charges yesterday and, this morning, he surrender to the FBI in White Plains. The indictment was sealed, but the 16 counts include charges of "conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud, tax fraud and making false statements." The U.S. Attorney's office, which sought the indictment, and the FBI are giving a press conference now; U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York... more ›