2001-12-19 -- Cardone, Pasquale, J. -- Sentencing -- News Release

Northfield Attorney Sentenced to One Year in Prison for Tax Evasion

NEWARK - A suspended Northfield attorney was sentenced today to 12 months in prison for concealing his ability to pay over $77,000 in income and employment taxes, U.S. Attorney Robert J. Cleary announced.

Pasquale J. Cardone, 52, formerly of Cherry Hill, pleaded guilty on Sept. 5 to a one-count Information charging him with income tax evasion, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicholas S. Acker.

U.S. District Judge Nicholas H. Politan, who sentenced him today, ordered Cardone to voluntarily surrender to the Bureau of Prisons on Feb. 4 to begin serving his prison sentence. He was released on a $100,000 bond and ordered to restrict his travel to New Jersey, Florida and Philadelphia.

Cardone also faces civil penalties that may be assessed by the IRS.

In April 1993, Cardone filed income tax returns for tax years 1987 through 1991, in which he acknowledged owing approximately $75,000 in total income taxes for those years, according to the Information. In August 1992, he filed an employment tax return for the second quarter of 1989 in which he acknowledged owing approximately $2,700 in additional taxes.

For a period of several years beginning after his filing of these tax returns, Cardone took various steps that were designed to, among other purposes, prevent the IRS from collecting the taxes that he acknowledged owing on these returns, he admitted at his plea in September.

Cardone opened at least four bank accounts, in the names of at least three fictitious businesses, and deposited substantial funds, including funds from his law practice, into those bank accounts, according to statements made in court.

Cardone admitted that he intentionally held funds in the bank accounts with the fictitious names and transferred only enough funds to his business bank account to pay his operating expenses. Cardone said he intentionally wrote checks to "cash" in amounts as large as $5,000 against some of the accounts that he had opened in the fictitious names.

In or about June 1994, Cardone demanded that the IRS release a levy on a bank account, claiming that he needed the account funds to cover his payroll, and thereafter used the funds for nonpayroll expenses, including his own personal expenses, he admitted.

Cardone was suspended from practicing law in New Jersey for three years by order of the New Jersey State Supreme Court in February 1999.

Under U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, Judge Politan determined the actual sentence based on a formula that takes into account the severity and characteristics of the offense and other factors.

Parole has been abolished in the federal system. Under Sentencing Guidelines, defendants who are given custodial terms must serve nearly all that time.

Cleary credited Special Agents of the IRS Criminal Investigation section, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Anne D. Fahy, with developing the case against Cardone.

The Government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Acker of the U.S. Attorney's Fraud and Public Protection Division in Newark.

Defense Attorney: Joseph P. Grimes, Esq. Cherry Hill