WEST LONG BRANCH ? Matthew Tucci, son of borough mayor Janet Tucci, pleaded guilty Wednesday to tax evasion in U.S. District Court in Newark and now faces up to five years in federal prison.
Tucci was arrested in April 2024 by federal agents for concealing a multimillion-dollar real estate portfolio and lying to the IRS to avoid paying over $2.4 million in federal income taxes. The money was allegedly acquired through a Denmark pension scheme, a separate case that is still open.
According to the U.S. Attorney's office, for tax years 2015 and 2016, Tucci filed tax returns that stated he owed more than $2 million in taxes for both years. Despite admitting that he owed those taxes, Tucci did not fully pay them when they were due. Instead, Tucci purchased real estate and engaged in a series of transactions designed to conceal his interest in those properties.
In 2017, the IRS sent notices to Tucci that he owed taxes, interest, and penalties for 2015 and 2016. After receiving these notices, Tucci transferred multiple properties to an entity owned by another individual, but he continued to exert control over at least two of them.
Of the two properties Tucci continued to control, he sold one and refinanced the other. Tucci used the proceeds from these transactions to pay his personal expenses rather than his tax debts. In 2019, Tucci submitted documents to the IRS that falsely claimed that he had no connection to the entity that owned the 12 properties.
Tucci is scheduled to be sentenced on October 9. He faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison as well as a period of supervised release, restitution and monetary penalties. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
Tucci is also involved in another case with the Danish government.
According to the indictment that was delivered in April 2024, Tucci received $11.4 million in income from purported refunds by the Customs and Tax Administration of the Kingdom of Denmark over two years, 2015 & 2016. SKAT, as its known by its Danish acronym, claims Tucci acquired those funds illegally.
In 2018, SKAT filed a lawsuit to recoup the funds. Tucci is one of several brokers who were caught up in an international lawsuit that alleges they participated in a pension fund scheme that allegedly bilked the Danish government out of $2.1 billion — or 12.7 billion Danish kroner.
SKAT claims the brokers acted as agents for pension funds that requested tax refunds for shares in Danish companies that they didn't own. The lawsuit is separate from the tax evasion case.
Tucci's defense had filed a motion to have the Denmark case dismissed based on the Revenue Rule, which prohibits foreign governments from using U.S. courts to collect its taxes. However, the case is still open.
When Jersey Shore native Dan Radel is not reporting the news, you can find him in a college classroom where he is a history professor. Reach him at [email protected]