Former Waterbury Detective Sentenced to Prison for Obstrucing Tax Investigation

Deirdre M. Daly, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that Robert Liquindoli, 42, of Waterbury, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Janet Bond Arterton in New Haven to five months of imprisonment, followed by one year of supervised release, the first five months of which Liquindoli must serve in home confinement. On November 20, 2013, Liquindoli pleaded guilty to one count of obstruction of the administration of the Internal Revenue laws.

According to court documents and statements made in court, in December 2011, the Internal Revenue Service was conducting an investigation of Thomas Thorndike, a Waterbury tax preparer. In connection with that investigation, the IRS requested to interview Liquindoli, whose 2007 and 2008 tax returns had been prepared by Thorndike. After being contacted by the IRS, Liquindoli sought to obstruct the IRS’s investigation by obtaining false documents that he intended to present to the IRS in support of deductions he claimed on his tax returns in 2007 and 2008. Between December 2011 and February 2012, Liquindoli engaged in an effort to obtain false documents in support of false items on these tax returns and lied to the IRS concerning the extent to which he possessed original and legitimate documents to support the deductions on his tax returns. Liquindoli also falsely denied that he had attempted to obtain false documents to support those deductions.

Liquindoli, who was formerly employed as a detective with the Waterbury Police Department, was ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $4,489.56.

Thorndike pleaded guilty to tax offenses in October 2012 and, on March 12, 2013, was sentenced to 72 months of imprisonment.

This matter was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Christopher Mattei and Eric Glover.