Victor Aguayo, owner and president of Mabel Interior Design Inc., an interior painting business in Westbury, New York, pleaded guilty today to employment tax charges. Aguayo admitted that he failed to collect and pay employment tax from his employees’ wages, which resulted in a huge tax loss to the federal government.
According to court documents and statements made in court, Aguayo was responsible for withholding Social Security, Medicare, and federal income taxes from his employees’ wages and reporting these withholdings to the IRS on a quarterly basis. Additionally, he was required to pay these withheld taxes to the IRS on a quarterly basis.
Instead, Aguayo paid his employees approximately $3.6 million, failing to withhold or remit the required taxes. He also caused false quarterly tax returns to be filed, omitting cash wages from the company’s tax books. This arrangement resulted in a tax loss to the IRS of $545,743.
Aguayo is scheduled to be sentenced on April 21, 2025. He faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison, as well as a period of supervised release, restitution, and monetary penalties. A district court judge will determine the final sentence after considering the US Sentencing Guidelines and other relevant legal factors.
Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stuart M. Goldberg of the Department of Justice’s Tax Division announced the case.
The case was investigated by IRS Criminal Investigation and prosecuted by Senior Assistant Sarah Ranney and Trial Attorney Joseph DG Castro of the Department of Justice’s Tax Division.
