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YONKERS---The former head of the Yonkers City Democratic Party and chief marshal for the City of Yonkers has pleaded guilty in White Plains federal court to obstructing the Internal Revenue Service and failing to file federal income tax returns.
Ralph Arred, 64, of Scarsdale, faces a maximum sentence of three years in prison on the obstruction charge and one year for failing to file. He also faces a maximum fine of $250,000 or twice the gross gain or loss resulting from his offenses, and imposition of the costs of prosecution. Sentencing is scheduled for July 20.
According to Court records and his guilty plea to a felony Information, Arred owned and operated Arred Electrical Contractor Corp., a construction-related company based in Yonkers. Prosecutors said the IRS audited Arred Electrical in the late 1980s and discovered that Arred Electrical owed the IRS nearly $800,000 in payroll taxes that it had withheld from its employees' salaries but which it had not remitted to the IRS as required by law.
As a result of these audits, the IRS, as permitted by applicable regulations, assessed the unpaid payroll taxes against Arred personally as the owner of the company. Over the more than a decade that followed, prosecutors said Arred engaged in conduct calculated to prevent the IRS from collecting the unpaid payroll taxes, including lying to federal officials under oath in a civil deposition about his assets, using nominee accounts and a shell corporation to conceal his assets (including gifts he received from a Yonkers contractor), and failing to file personal income tax returns.
Prosecutors said Arred also owned an entity known as County Site Development which received millions of dollars from Westchester County as a result of nine emergency no-bid contracts awarded to Arred by the County. During the years 2001 through 2004, at a time when he was receiving substantial income from County Site and other sources, Arred filed no personal income tax returns. 4-26-06
© 2006 North
Country Gazette
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