PHILADELPHIA – United States Attorney Jennifer Arbittier Williams announced that Anthony Lucidonio, Sr., 84, of Philadelphia, PA, and Nicholas Lucidonio, 56, of New Jersey, pleaded guilty today before United States District Court Judge Gerald McHugh to charges related to their conspiracy to defraud the United States for the purpose of impeding, impairing, or obstructing the Internal Revenue Service in the assessment and collection of employment taxes. The defendants, who were indicted in July 2020, are owners of Tony Luke’s, a cheesesteak and sandwich restaurant located in South Philadelphia. In pleading guilty, the defendants admitted to participating in a tax fraud scheme to evade payroll taxes between 2006 and 2016.
According to evidence summarized at today’s hearing, the defendants paid a significant number of their employees and partially “off-the-books.” To avoid withholding and paying over to the IRS employment taxes of the “off-the-books” amount, defendants gave their employees paychecks that reflected a portion of the employees’ hourly wages with the required taxes withheld. However, the wages the defendants paid and reported in this fashion represented only a portion of the true hours the employees worked. The Lucidonios then directed their employees to endorse their paychecks and give them back to the defendants and their restaurant managers. In exchange for return of the endorsed payroll checks, defendants provided their employees envelopes containing cash....
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