Federal prosecutors have admitted that the owner of the former nursing home empire, who has admitted to having been sentenced to three years in the $38 million tax fraud scheme, announced Thursday, has been sentenced to three years.
Joseph Schwartz, 65, of Suffern, New York, operated 95 facilities in 11 states before his plans overthrowed his company, according to a statement from the New Jersey Lawyers' Office District.
Schwartz admitted not to pay $308.9 million in taxes on behalf of employees at 90 healthcare facilities nationwide. His company, Skyline Management, was headquartered on a pizza shop in Woodridge, the office said.
Skyline Healthcare, another company owned by Skwartz under Skyline Management, operated three facilities in New Jersey. The Hudson View Care & Rehabilitation Center in North Bergen, Brook Herben Healthcare Center in East Orange, and Voorhees Care & Rehabilitation Center.
He began expanding Skyline Management in 2015, and then the company swelled to over 90 facilities, many of which made Schwartz a registered employee, investigators said.
Schwartz later hired an unrelated company and processed his salary. He then withheld the money needed to adequately handle the overall salary and unemployment tax liability he owed to the Internal Revenue Service between mid-2017 and June 2018, bringing him a massive tax liability.
He pleaded guilty to not paying employment tax withheld from employees of his company in January and failed to submit an annual financial report to the Department of Labor for the 401K scheme he sponsored for his employees, federal prosecutors said.
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Chris Sheldon can be contacted at csheldon@njadvancemedia.com.
