Manalapan Man Sentenced to 18 Months in Prison for Tax Evasion, Making False Statements

TRENTON, NJ—A Manalpan, N.J., man who admitted evading his personal taxes and sending false documents to the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in order to receive federal funding to which he was not entitled was sentenced today to 18 months in prison, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.

Eric Logiudice, 42, previously pleaded guilty to an Information charging him with one count of tax evasion and one count of making false statements. The false statements were made in documents submitted to obtain community redevelopment funds. The defendant entered his guilty plea before U.S. District Judge Joel A. Pisano, who imposed the sentence today in Trenton federal court.

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

Logiudice admitted he evaded paying $115,711 in personal income taxes for 2006. From 2005 through 2008, he evaded $199,847 in personal income taxes by submitting false and fraudulent tax returns that failed to disclose $607,161 in income. This unreported income included at least approximately $150,000 stolen and embezzled from his former employer, NJS Metropolitan Architectural Woodworking Inc. in Union, N.J.

While working at NJS, Logiudice became aware that an individual was submitting an application to the City of Orange Township Department of Planning and Development to receive Essex County HUD’s Community Economic Revitalization Program funds for a renovation project on Lincoln Avenue. After he became the general contractor for the project, Logiudice caused another NJS employee to create fraudulent, certified weekly payroll reports for five employees who never worked on the project and then submitted them to City of Orange officials, obtaining $52,872.50 in community redevelopment funds from HUD.

In addition to the prison term, Judge Pisano sentenced Logiudice to three years of supervised release. As part of his guilty plea, Logiudice agreed to pay restitution of $199,847 to the IRS for all losses resulting from his submission of fraudulent tax returns for 2005 through 2008; $52,872.50 to HUD for his submission of fraudulent payroll records; and at least $150,000 to NJS Metropolitan Architectural Woodworking Inc.

U.S. Attorney Fishman credited special agents of the FBI, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Michael B. Ward; IRS-Criminal Investigation, under the direction of Acting Special Agent in Charge JoAnn Zuniga; the U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General, Office of Labor Racketeering & Fraud Investigations, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Robert L. Panella; and the HUD Office of Inspector General, Mid-Atlantic Region, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Joseph W. Clarke, with the investigation leading to today’s sentence.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney David E. Malagold, Chief of the Organized Crime/Gangs Unit in Newark.

Defense counsel: Tim Donohue Esq., West Orange, N.J.