A Delaware County mushroom farm mogul is looking at nearly four years behind bars for skirting tax laws to the tune of $600,000, said officials. Donna Fecondo, the 63-year-old president and sole proprietor of Joseph Silvestri & Son, situated in Garnet Valley, PA, received a 46-month prison sentence for failing to cough up payroll taxes and not filing income tax returns, both personally and corporately.
According to a statement by U.S. Attorney Jacqueline C. Romero, Fecondo withheld taxes from her employees' paychecks but kept the cash from the IRS. Employing weekly-paid workers, her mushroom empire was supposed to deposit payroll taxes just as frequently. Despite docking her staff's pay, not a dime made its way to the government between 2013 and 2016.
Even after the IRS flagged up Fecondo's non-compliance, the fungus farm financier filed the long-overdue tax paperwork, but the payment part was perpetually postponed. "It’s these honest taxpayers who are being robbed when people try to cheat the system," expressed Romero, shedding light on taxes' sacred duty. Fecondo's defiance not only left the IRS short of about $1.2 million in total employment taxes but also explicitly demonstrated her choice to flout a responsibility most see as an immutable facet of American life.
IRS-CI Special Agent in Charge Yury Kruty, taking a break from overseeing fraud cases, underscored the importance of payroll contributions to fundamental social programs like Social Security and Medicare. "Payroll taxes are an integral source of funding for government programs such as Social Security and Medicare,” said Kruty, as per U.S. Attorney's Office. The IRS-CI has promised to relentlessly track down and prosecute those who sidestep their tax duties.
The mushroom magnate's malfeasance was meticulously investigated by the IRS-Criminal Investigation and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Karen Grigsby. Besides prison time, Fecondo is also facing the music financially, with a restitution payment hanging over her head as part of the sentence handed down by U.S. District Court Judge Mitchell S. Goldberg.
