Owner of New Jersey construction business admits failure to collect and pay over taxes

Date: Sept. 26, 2024

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Trenton, NJ - An Ocean County man today admitted failing to collect and pay over employee taxes, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger announced.

Gerard Artz, of Brick, New Jersey, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Robert Kirsch in Trenton federal court to an information charging him with one count of failure to collect and pay over taxes.

According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:

Artz owned and operated a construction company in Brick, New Jersey, and New York City. Beginning around 2016, Artz's company, under his direction, withheld employment taxes from the company's employees' paychecks and did not remit those employment taxes to the IRS. From 2016 to 2020, Artz and his company failed to collect and pay over $937,943 in employment taxes owed by his company.

The count of failure to collect and pay over taxes carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. As part of his plea agreement, Artz has agreed to pay the government restitution of $937,943. Sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 5, 2024.

U.S. Attorney Sellinger credited special agents of IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Jenifer L. Piovesan, with the investigation leading to the guilty plea.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Suggs of the Criminal Division in Trenton.

IRS-CI is the criminal investigative arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money-laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more. IRS-CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code, obtaining a more than a 90 percent federal conviction rate. The agency has 20 field offices located across the U.S. and 12 attaché posts abroad.