Source: Office of United States Attorneys
ROCHESTER, N.Y. – U.S. Attorney Trini E. Ross announced today that James Leonardo, 56, of Rochester, NY, who was convicted of filing a false tax return, was sentenced to time served and one year supervised release by Chief U.S. District Judge Elizabeth A. Wolford. Leonard was also ordered to pay restitution totaling $2,267,315.42.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard A. Resnick, who handled the case, stated that Leonardo is the sole member and owner of MY PI, LLC. The company owns a 110-foot yacht named “Pure Insanity,” which resulted in rental income for MY PI, LLC. Leonardo was required to report net profits or losses from the business use of the yacht on his personal federal income tax returns. For the years 2015 through 2018, Leonardo reported the rental income received by MY PI, LLC. However, to reduce the taxes owed, he falsely deducted all the losses incurred with respect to operation and maintenance by falsely claiming that the yacht was used 100% of the time for business purposes. In actuality, the yacht was only used for business purposes one-third of the time. As a result, Leonardo was only entitled to deduct one-third of the losses generated for operation and maintenance. As a result, he failed to report and pay additional income taxes totaling $872,869 for 2015 through 2018.
The sentencing is the result of an investigation by the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation Division, under the direction of Harry Chavis, Acting Executive Special Agent in Charge, New York Field Office, and the Department of Defense, Office of Inspector General’s, Defense Criminal Investigative Service, under the direction Special Agent-in-Charge Patrick J. Hegarty, Northeast Field Office.