NEWARK, NJ—A Hoboken, New Jersey, financial consultant today admitted evading payment of taxes on approximately $273,000 in commission payments received from an insurance broker, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.

John Twomey Booth, 66, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Esther Salas in Newark federal court to Count Three of an information charging him with willfully attempting to evade the payment of federal personal income tax for calendar year 2008.

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

Booth was a financial consultant who operated in Hoboken and elsewhere. Beginning in March 2006 and continuing through December 2009, Booth accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments from an insurance broker based in Towson, Maryland, whose companies provided insurance brokerage services for New Jersey municipal entities—including the Weehawken Board of Education and the Union City Board of Education. Booth directed the insurance broker and others to make payments to four entities controlled by Booth.

Booth used the funds to pay for his personal expenses and withdraw cash. Despite receiving approximately $719,000 in income during the calendar years 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009, including approximately $273,000 from the insurance broker, Booth failed to report any of this income to the IRS, causing a loss to the government of $119,731.

The tax evasion count to which Booth pleaded guilty carries a maximum potential penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 15, 2014.

U.S. Attorney Fishman credited special agents of IRS—Criminal Investigation, under the direction of Acting Special Agent in Charge Jonathan D. Larsen, and the FBI, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Aaron T. Ford, for the investigation leading to today’s plea.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Lee M. Cortes Jr., of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Special Prosecutions Division in Newark.