Traffic Manager Pleads Guilty to Tax Fraud Over Kickbacks
William Surdakowski, a shipping department manager for a J.Crew/Popular Plan Club office in Garfield, N.J., pleaded guilty June 14 in the U.S. District Court in Newark, N.J., to failing to report $74,889 in taxable income that he received in 1994 for awarding business to a trucking company in Virginia. The name of the firm was not released.
Surdakowski of Toms River, N.J., admitted that he deposited some of illegal kickbacks into his bank account and diverted other payments to third parties.
Agents of the IRS criminal investigative division found that Surdakowski also received $51,000 in bribes in 1992 and $64,000 in 1993. Under a plea bargain, he admitted to the tax evasion in 1994. However, Judge Katharine S. Hayden could take into account the other offenses during sentencing on Sept. 9.
“Once the criminal case is resolved, which in this case is after sentencing, then the IRS civil side will assess the back taxes,” said Nicholas S. Acker, an assistant U.S. attorney in Newark.
“He may be ordered to pay back taxes as part of the criminal judgment anyway, but sometimes the number on the civil side is higher because in criminal prosecutions we use more conservative assumptions,” he said. “There may also be civil penalties like interest that he could be ordered to pay.”
