Wallingford Attorney Pleads Guilty To Tax Evasion: Feds

WALLINGFORD, CT — A Wallingford attorney has pleaded guilty to tax evasion, according to officials.

Mark Carbutti, 48, of Wallingford, waived his right to be indicted and pleaded guilty Thursday in Hartford federal court to tax evasion, U.S. Attorney for Connecticut Vanessa Roberts Avery announced.

Carbutti is an attorney specializing in personal injury law.

For the 2013 through 2017 tax years, Carbutti reported approximately $585,025 in income taxes owed to the Internal Revenue Service as a result of his legal practice and certain rental income, according to officials.

“During that time period and thereafter, Carbutti made only limited payments of his taxes due and owing, and interest and penalties accrued as a result of his non-payment,” officials wrote in a news release. “Between December 2014 and May 2019, Carbutti received at least 12 notices from the IRS advising him of his tax amounts due and instructions on how to pay his overdue taxes. When the IRS levied certain personal bank accounts used by Carbutti, he closed those accounts and evaded the payment of taxes, interest, and penalties by writing checks from his law firm’s operating account payable to his paralegal, which subsequently were converted to cash and deposited into the bank accounts of limited liability companies (“LLCs”) that Carbutti had created in association with his real estate holdings.

“Carbutti also took substantial additional cash withdrawals from his law firm bank accounts and redeposited the monies in the LLCs bank accounts. Between approximately 2013 and 2019, Carbutti paid approximately $600,000 in personal expenses from the LLCs bank accounts, including expenditures for gambling at casinos, restaurants, vacations and the purchase of a BMW automobile.”

Carbutti pleaded guilty to one count of tax evasion, an offense that carries a maximum term of imprisonment of five years. He is scheduled to be sentenced on March 2.

Carbutti has agreed to pay the IRS $750,180 in back taxes, interest and penalties, officials said.