Five people who either live or work in Queens were charged in separate cases last week for allegedly trying to defraud New York State out of about $200,000 in personal income or business-related taxes.
The five people facing the charges are David Schnall, who lives in Manhattan but has his law office at 153-01 Jamaica Avenue; Gregory Greene, who resides in Elmont, Long Island and owns the Greene Team Realty in Queens; Marc Zazeela, who lives in Briarwood; Michael Porcelli, a resident of Ridgewood; and Ralph Duthely, an attorney from Jamaica.
According to Queens District Attorney Richard Brown’s press release, Porcelli, who owns Central Automotive and Collision Services and Central Automotive Enterprises, Inc, has been charged with second-degree grand larceny, second-degree criminal possession of stolen property, first-degree scheme to defraud and failure to file and failure to pay under the state tax law.
The criminal complaint also alleges Porcelli collected New York State taxes for three employees, totaling $56,267 from 2003 through 2010, but never passed the money on to the state. The alleged fraud was uncovered when those employees filed their personal income tax returns. Porcelli faces up to seven years in prison if he is convicted of those charges.
Schnall has been charged with second-degree criminal possession of stolen property and failure to file a return and pay tax, with third-degree criminal tax fraud, under the state tax law.
According to the district attorney’s office, Schnall did not file personal income tax returns from 2001 until 2010. He had an estimated tax liability of $53,629 during that time. He is also accused of submitting unsigned tax returns for 2007 through 2010 after he was contacted by state tax representatives. He also did not pay the tax liability for those years.
Schnall faces up to 15 years in prison if he is convicted. He stand to receive the strictest sentence out of the five men.
Greene, in addition to facing several violations of the state tax law, faces five different charges, including third-degree criminal possession of stolen property, first-degree falsifying business records and third degree attempted grand larceny. It is believed that Greene, who works as a tax preparer, under-reported his income for 2008 and 2009, which made him liable for $51,314 in taxes. It is also alleged that, when he met with an undercover state tax representative who claimed to be self-employed, he reduced the business income and bumped up the expenses of the undercover tax representative without any supporting documentation, which reduced the amount of money the undercover tax representative owed. Greene faces up to 11 years in prison if he is convicted.
Zazeela is charged with third-degree criminal possession of stolen property, repeated failure to file taxes, fourth-degree criminal tax fraud and failure to pay taxes. He is accused of failing to file a personal income tax return for the years 2001 through 2009. Zazeela is estimated to be liable for $40,621 in taxes. He faces up to seven years in jail if convicted.
Duthely has been charged with third-degree criminal possession of stolen property, failure to file tax returns, criminal tax fraud and failure to pay taxes. He is believed to have not filed personal income tax returns from 2007 until 2009 and he is estimated to owe $17,209 in taxes. Like Porcelli and Zazeela, he also faces seven years in prison if he is convicted.
