A Killingworth cement vendor will spend 40 months in federal prison for cheating the Internal Revenue Service and taxpayers out of $3.7 million, federal prosecutors say.
Douglas Cartelli, aka “Douglas Martin,” 42, also was sentenced on three counts of tax evasion by a Hartford federal judge to three years of supervised release for his involvement in “an extensive tax evasion scheme,” the Connecticut U.S. Attorney’s office says.
According to investigators, Cartelli, through DMC Concrete Corp. and various other corporate entities, bilked the IRS and taxpayers by misclassifying his workers as independent contractors.
This way, authorities say, he masked the amount of employees federal tax being withheld.
Investigators say that once authorities got onto his scheme, Cartelli unsuccessfully tried various financial ruses to cover his tracks.
Ultimately, his misdeeds cost the IRS more than $3.45 million in unpaid taxes and penalties, authorities said. Carelli also was ordered to repay the IRS what he owes.
In addition, Cartelli failed to file personal tax returns on nearly $1 million of income from 2004 to 2007, resulting in $275,000 more in losses to the federal taxman.
