WCNYH

Checker Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy to Defraud in Federal Court

February 27, 2013

           On February 27, 2013, suspended Checker Vincent J. Fusella, Jr. appeared before the Honorable Kiyo A. Matsumoto in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York and pleaded guilty to Conspiracy to Defraud the United States under the first count of his thirty-one count indictment. Fusella admitted to concealing wages and failing to pay FICA taxes to the IRS on behalf of workers at two trucking companies he and his brother, Gerardo Fusella, own – the Fusella Group, LLC and Alpine Investment Group, Inc.. Gerardo Fusella pleaded guilty the same day to embezzling over $1 million from their workers’ pension funds. Vincent Fusella, Jr. will be sentenced on July 29, 2013 and faces up to five years in prison, a $250,000 fine and has been ordered to pay $161,637.99 in restitution.

           Vincent Fusella was arrested on December 22, 2011 and his license as a Checker suspended that date by Commission vote pending an administrative hearing on the charges in the indictment. The United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York prosecuted the criminal matter.