Butler County Business Owner Pleads Guilty to Impeding the IRS

CINCINNATI—Joseph A. Ruscigno, 58, of Hamilton pled guilty in United States District Court here today to one count of impeding the Internal Revenue Service by overstating expenses for a company he owned in order to reduce his payments on delinquent taxes the company owed the IRS.

Gregory G. Lockhart, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, Jose A. Gonzalez, Special Agent in Charge, Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (IRS); and Keith L. Bennett, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), announced the plea entered today before Senior United States District Judge Herman Weber.

According to court documents, Ruscigno was an owner of a business known as Fitch Reporting, Inc. This business had failed to pay federal taxes due the United States. In or about June 2007, Ruscigno and another individual began making weekly payments of $1,500 to the IRS in order to satisfy the past due tax obligation.

Ruscigno put together a fraudulent profit and loss statement in October 2007 that exaggerated the company’s business expenses in an attempt to reduce the payments they were making to the IRS.

Impeding the IRS is punishable by up to three years imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000. Judge Weber set Ruscigno’s sentencing for August 25th.

Lockhart commended the cooperative investigation by IRS and FBI agents, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Chema, who is prosecuting the case.