Businessman gets 6-month sentence in tax evasion (undocumented carpenters)

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/ny-licarp0426,0,7529549.story

BY ROBERT E. KESSLER | [e-mail]
2:33 PM EDT, April 25, 2008

The head of a business that supplies skilled, but undocumented carpenters to many home-construction projects on Long Island was sentenced Friday to 6 months at a federal halfway house for income tax evasion.

Jay Kuhn, the head of Kuhn Brothers Construction, in St. James, had faced up to 3 years in prison after he was charged with evading $400,000 in federal taxes by paying his workers off-the-books.

But U.S. District Judge Thomas Platt at the federal court in Central Islip gave a lower sentence than called for by sentencing guidelines, after both Kuhn's attorney, James O'Rourke, of Hauppauge, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles Kelly, argued Kuhn was actively cooperating with the investigation into tax evasion in the building industry.

Under the terms of the sentence, Kuhn will have to repay the $400,000 in evaded taxes, serve three years' supervised release, and serve 6 months in a federal halfway house from which he will be allowed to go out to work during the day.

The arrest of Kuhn in July by agents of the Criminal Investigation Division of the Internal Revenue Service was the first public revelation of an ongoing federal probe into the payment of off-the-books wages to undocumented immigrants in the home-building industry. Three executives of other carpentry businesses are awaiting sentencing as a result of the investigation.

Before he was sentenced, Kuhn said in court Friday, "I'm very sorry."


FULL story at link.

[williesgirl]

1. He's very sorry he got caught. He should be in prison. rec'd

[Joesunionreview]

2. Terrible

just terrible, he only got 1/4 of the sentence. He should have been sentenced to working in another country as an illegal alien without any rights until he could save up the $400,000 , Guatemala or Vietnam could use some experienced carpenters.

Original story from my really early days at UnionReview (7/7/07)
http://unionreview.com/long-island-ny-contractor-evades-taxes-illegal-labor