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Politics & Government

Ex-Mayor Inteso Pleads Guilty to Tax Evasion

Former Toms River Mayor Carmine C. Inteso Jr. pleaded guilty to tax evasion.

Former Toms River Mayor Carmine C. Inteso Jr. today pleaded guilty to tax evasion in Trenton federal court for failing to report hundreds of thousands of dollars of income from a insurance broker who was doing business with the town and school district, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman said.

Inteso, who was arrested in July after returning from Afghanistan, where he had been working as a contractor, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Joel A. Pisano to one of six tax evasion counts, Fishman said in a statement.

Inteso, who held various offices in Toms River from 2002 through 2007, allegedly took a job in Afghanistan after learning he was the target of the tax investigation and, after returning to the United States, was taken into custody at New York’s John F. Kennedy International airport.

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Inteso joined the Dover Township Committee in 2002 and became mayor August 13 that year.  He then served as deputy mayor in 2003 and later became a councilman-at-large when Dover, Toms River's previous name, had changed to a Mayor-Council form of government, according to Toms River's records.

Beginning in 2005 and continuing through 2008, Inteso accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments from Francis X. Gartland, 71, of Baltimore, an insurance broker whose companies provided insurance brokerage services for New Jersey municipal entities – including the Brick Township Board of Education and the Township of Toms River, Fishman said.

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Inteso directed Gartland -- who was recently sentenced to 135 months in prison for mail fraud, perjury, and consipiracy to defraud the IRS -- to make the payments to a company Inteso controlled and that had ceased operating by 2007, Fishman said. 

Inteso used the funds to pay for his personal expenses and withdrew significant amounts of cash. Despite receiving approximately $291,000 in income from the insurance broker during calendar years 2006, 2007 and 2008, Inteso failed to file personal income taxes for those years, Fishman said.

According to the U.S. Attorney's indictment against Inteso,  he had tax deficiencies of $26,971 for the tax year 2006, $20,839 for 2007 and $3,206 in 2008 when he withdrew money from a "sham company" he created.

The count of tax evasion to which Inteso pleaded guilty is punishable by a maximum potential penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Sentencing is scheduled for April 22, 2013.

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