A construction boss in the US could face prison after being charged with failing to pay years of employee payroll taxes, scheming to defraud a construction contractor of millions of dollars, and aggravated identity theft.
According to the US Inland Revenue Service (IRS), Nigel Kenneth Joseph, who founded masonry subcontractor BWK, based in the Bronx, New York City, was arrested on 22 July and now faces a 14-count complaint.
Harry T. Chavis Jr, head of field investigation in New York for the IRS-Criminal Investigation, said the allegations were that Nigel Joseph shortchanged his workers, “lied about it, falsified records and pocketed the money for himself”. This entailed defrauding the IRS of payroll taxes, the IRS alleges.
Chavis said: “When a person purportedly leases luxury vehicles, buys NBA tickets and travels to tropical islands instead of paying payroll taxes for his employees, it is the American people who are victimised.”
Joseph founded BWK in 2019. Between 2019 and 2021, BWK earned at least $10m for jobs carried out in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut.
According to an IRS analysis of financial records, Joseph failed to pay at least $2.9m in payroll taxes and approximately $750,000 he owed as an employer.
Rather than pay taxes, he allegedly used BWK funds to enrich his wife, buy courtside basketball tickets and a Rolex, lease luxury cars, and take Caribbean holidays.
It is also alleged that Joseph directed the production of falsified certified payroll documents in order to obtain approximately $1.96m in payments for projects on Long Island.
Joseph, of Bergenfield, New Jersey, is charged with 11 counts of failure to account for and pay over payroll taxes, each of which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison; one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison; one count of wire fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison; and one count of aggravated identity theft, which carries a mandatory sentence of two years in prison.
The IRS points out that the charges contained in the complaint are merely accusations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
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