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WHITE PLAINS----Two Westchester brothers who owned more than two dozen Dunkin Donuts franchises have pleaded guilty in White Plains federal court to tax fraud and other charges for evading paying more than $1.5 million in payroll and income taxes.
Constantine Gianopoulos, 38, also known as "Gus," and his brother, Anastasios Gianopoulos, 41, aka "Tom," both of North Salem, owned and controlled a management company known as Food Management Group, LLC formerly known as Food Management Services, Corp. The management companies operated between 28 and 35 Dunkin Donuts shops at various times, as well as the bakeries that supplied them, which were also owned by the Gianopoulous brothers.
According to the informations filed by the U.S. Attorney's office for the Southern District of New York, the pair engaged in a scheme to evade both income and payroll taxes in connection with their operation of the donut shops by failing to file corporate and partnership tax returns for FMG and FMS; failing to file their personal tax returns, disguising the salaries of certain employees as nontaxable "expense reimbursements" and submitting false W-2 forms and payroll tax forms to the IRS.
According to court records, the pair evaded more than $1.5 million in payroll and income taxes and agreed as part of their plea agreements with the government to make restitution in the full amount of the tax loss. Both defendants also pleaded guilty to making false statements on a series of four loan applications to the Central Credit Union , a small, Queens-based, member-owned credit union.
The complaints said that the underwriting rules of the Credit Union limited to $1 million the maximum permissible loan to an individual. In order to circumvent this limitation, the Gianopoulos brothers caused four separate loan applications in the names of the defendants and other family members who acted as nominees to be submitted to the CCU during 2004. The applications requested a total of more than $3 million in loans. The defendants admitted during their plea allocutions that the loan applications contained false statements relating to the employment status of the borrowers. The pair also admitted that they submitted to the CCU false corporate tax returns reflecting that restaurants owned by them were profitable, when in fact the true tax returns submitted to the IRS reflected a loss.
Anastasios Gianopoulos also admitted to obstructing a pending lawsuit brought by a creditor against FMG. According to the Information, QuesTech Financial, LLC, made a series of secured commercial loans to various corporate entities controlled in part by Anastasios, largely for the benefit of the Dunkin Donuts entities. After the borrowing entities defaulted on the loans, QuesTech sued FMG in federal court in White Plains demanding immediate possession of the security. During his plea allocution, Anastasios admitted that he lied under oath during a civil deposition taken on April 22, 2004, about the ownership of the security in order to prevent QuesTech from recovering the assets.
As a result of their guilty pleas, the brothers each face a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison on the charge of making false statements to the credit union and 5 years in prison on the tax evasion charge. Anastasios also faces a maximum of 10 years in prison for the charge of obstruction of justice.
As a result of their guilty pleas, which were both entered before U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark D. Fox, they also each face a maximum fine of $1 million and imposition of the costs of prosecution.
Anastasios' sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 14 before United States District Judge Charles L. Brieant. Constantine is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 23 by U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon. 11-25-05
© 2005 North
Country Gazette
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