Business owner sentenced to 15 months in prison
The owner of a landscaping and contracting business was sentenced to 15 months in federal prison on Nov. 20 for tax evasion, U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie announced.

U.S. District Judge Stanley R. Chesler also ordered Christopher M. Aldarelli Sr., 41, of Howell, to pay the Internal Revenue Service more than $864,000 in back taxes, penalties and interest.

Aldarelli pleaded guilty on April 13 to Count Two of a three-count Information charging him with tax evasion for tax years 1998, 1999 and 2000.

Count Two pertained to calendar year 1999 during which, according to the Indictment returned against Aldarelli in February, he reported taxable income in the amount of $66,232 with a resulting tax in the amount of $12,121.

At his plea hearing, Aldarelli admitted that he intentionally failed to include an additional amount of nearly $300,000 in personal income he received during 1999 on that tax return in an effort to evade paying income taxes, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office.

During that proceeding, Aldarelli had informed the court that this additional income stemmed from the receipt of cash for work his companies performed which he did not report, as well as from cash he withdrew from business accounts but used for personal expenses.

He also admitted to writing checks to himself from the business accounts which he used for personal and non-businessrelated expenses.

For the three years in question, Aldarelli failed to report more than $700,000 in taxable income that he had earned through his landscaping business and failed to pay approximately $317,000 in income taxes that were due and owing. Aldarelli was ordered to repay that amount as well as more than $500,000 in additional penalties and interest, according to the press release.

In determining the actual sentence, Chesler consulted the advisory U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, which provide appropriate sentencing ranges that take into account the severity and characteristics of the offense, the defendant's criminal history, if any, and other factors. The judge, however, was not bound by those guidelines in determining the sentence.

Parole has been abolished in the federal system. Defendants who are given custodial terms must serve nearly all that time.

Christie credited special agents of the Internal Revenue Service's Criminal Investigations, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge William P. Offord, as well as special agents of the FBI's Red Bank Resident Agency, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Weysan Dun, for their work in the investigation of Aldarelli.