The owner of a Guilford landscaping business was sentenced Monday to three months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for tax evasion.
U.S. District Court Judge Stefan R. Underhill imposed the sentence on Louis Pocograno, 58, of Guilford, in a court proceeding in Bridgeport.
Pocograno owns Poco & Son Lawn Care, LLC of Guilford, which does general yard work, mowing, landscaping, leaf removal and snowplowing. Pocograno pleaded guilty to one count of tax evasion in March.
Underhill departed from sentencing guidelines, which had been calculated at 18 to 24 months of imprisonment.
Pocograno must pay the Internal Revenue Service $33,383 in restitution, the amount of income tax due for the 2013 through 2016 tax years. He also has to pay an additional $250,364, which covers employment tax due, plus interest and penalties, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Douglas P. Morabito, who prosecuted the case, asserted in a pre-sentencing memorandum that Pocograno “committed a very serious crime over the course of several years.”
According to the government, between 2013 and 2016, Pocograno cashed numerous checks from his landscaping clients that were made payable to him rather than his business, and then didn’t report this income to the IRS. Pocograno also used a portion of the cash to pay his undocumented workers, and didn’t collect or pay employment taxes for these employees.
“Tax fraud undermines the public’s confidence in the tax system,” Morabito said, in the memorandum.
Morabito asked Underhill to impose a sentence which would “deter like-minded individuals.”
“The sentence in this case must reflect the seriousness of the offense, promote public respect for the law, and demonstrate that as a society we treat very seriously crimes involving tax fraud,” Morabito said. “When citizens who earn income and then fail to fully report it, like the defendant, repeatedly ignore our tax laws, they should be punished with more than a pat on the wrist.”
Attorney Michael Dolan of Hamden, who represents Pocograno, said this was his 58-year-old client’s first encounter with the criminal-justice system.
Dolan asked Underhill to impose a sentence of probation, with no period of confinement.
According to Dolan, his client launched his business in 2003, and grew it from a handful of customers to about 250 accounts.
“Mr. Pocograno is truly repentant of his conduct and prepared to move forward as a law-abiding citizen,” Dolan said, in a defense pre-sentencing memorandum.
Dolan said his client is a U.S. Navy veteran who has been devoted to his family, friends and country and is someone who has volunteered to help others, including doing free yard work for a widow.
“Mr. Pocograno’s involvement in this offense was truly out of character,” Dolan said. “He accepted responsibility for his involvement in this offense very early in the investigation.”
Contact Michelle Tuccitto Sullo at msullo@newhavenbiz.com
