New York payroll provider gets 30 months in prison

A man who was supposed to pay payroll taxes on behalf of several small business owners but didn’t is going to prison for up 30 months.

Vincent P. Mangione, the operator of a North Tonawanda, New York, payroll and tax preparation business, was sentenced today by Chief U.S. District Judge William M. Skretny on tax evasion and bank fraud charges.

The judge also ordered him to pay $839,000 in restitution to the victims.

“No logical reason can explain what I’ve done,” Mangione told Skretny.

With most of Mangione’s victims looking on, Skretny admonished him for betraying the trust of his clients, many of whom are now facing serious financial problems.

“It comes down to greed more than anything else,” the judge told Mangione. “It’s just plain wrong. It’s just plain unfair. It’s just plain criminal conduct and you have to be held accountable.”

Federal prosecutors claim Mangione, who operated MTS Payroll and Mil-Sher Tax Services Inc., routinely filed false quarterly tax returns on behalf of his clients and then pocketed the difference.

They also claim Mangione bilked a local bank by depositing checks into an account he knew had insufficient funds and then withdrawing the funds before his checks cleared.

“We can’t lose sight of the fact that the harm Mr. Mangione has done has damaged the victims for a long time,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael DiGiacomo said in court.

Herbert L. Greenman, one of Mangione’s lawyers, said his client is prepared to hand over more than $675,00 in cash and property as a first step in repaying the victims.

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