Former Construction Official Sentenced for Tax Evasion, DOJ Says

FORMER CONSTRUCTION EXECUTIVE SENTENCED TO 38 MONTHS IN PRISON

Evaded Taxes on $1.4 Million in Bribes

TUESDAY, JANUARY 19, 2021

WASHINGTON — A former senior New York construction official was sentenced to 38 months in prison today for tax evasion, announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard E. Zuckerman of the Justice Department's Tax Division.

According to court documents, for more than eight years, Anthony Guzzone attempted to evade his federal income taxes. Guzzone, the former Director of Global Construction at Bloomberg LP in New York, failed to report to the IRS over $1.45 million in bribes he received from subcontractors performing work at Bloomberg construction jobs. Guzzone, together with other Bloomberg managers and officials at Turner Construction, solicited a total of over $6 million in bribes, which was typically paid to them in cash. On other occasions, Guzzone received in-kind bribes in the form of free construction work performed on his home and tickets to expensive events like the Super Bowl.

One Bloomberg manager involved in the scheme, Michael Campana, had subcontractors pay for the catering hall at his wedding, as well as the wedding photographer. Campana was previously sentenced to 24 months in prison based on his failure to report the bribery income. Based on Guzzone's failure to report the bribe income between 2010 and 2017, he caused a tax loss to the IRS of approximately $450,000. Two Turner Construction officials, Ronald Olson and Vito Nigro, are awaiting sentence.

In addition to a term of imprisonment, U.S. District Court Judge Lewis Liman sentenced Guzzone to three years of supervised release, and ordered him to pay $574,005 in restitution to the IRS, which comprised his outstanding taxes and interest.

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Zuckerman commended special agents of IRS-CI as well as Assistant U.S. Attorney David Lewis for the Southern District of New York and Senior Litigation Counsel Stanley Okula of the Tax Division who prosecuted the case.