Cream Ridge Couple Charged With $2.6M Tax Evasion

CREAM RIDGE, NJ — A couple who lives in wealthy, rural Cream Ridge and own a commercial trucking company were arrested Friday morning on charges that they owe the IRS approximately $2.6 million in unpaid personal and business income taxes.

Tito Viteri, 39, and Maria Yepez, 38, were arrested at their home Friday morning by FBI agents.

Since 2002, Viteri has owned numerous commercial trucking companies that performed delivery services, all of but one of which operated in New Jersey. His wife, Yepez, was the nominal owner of three of the companies.

The US Attorney's Office said they deliberately failed to pay the IRS taxes for an eight-year period from 2008 through 2016.

Viteri and Yepez allegedly conspired to avoid paying taxes by “pyramiding” some of those companies, and using nominees as the purported owners of several of the companies to avoid employment tax liabilities. They also falsely categorized employees as independent contractors, for whom employment taxes did not have to be paid. The feds say they also inaccurately reported their personal income and assets by depositing money into their child’s bank account.

In 2008, an IRS audit determined that Viteri owed approximately $785,000 in unpaid taxes for one of his companies, and he himself owed approximately $315,000 in unpaid personal taxes. Although Viteri began making payments to the IRS in August 2011, he stopped making those payments in December 2013, claiming he was not “bringing enough money home.”

Despite his claims, at around the same time (February 2013 to February 2016) Viteri and Yepez made approximately $111,000 in rental payments (approximately $3,000 per month) for a property in Chesterfield where they lived.

Although Viteri and Yepez still had substantial outstanding tax liabilities, in 2016, Viteri and Yepez purchased a home in Cream Ridge for $929,653. To conceal the purchase of the home from the IRS, Viteri and Yepez purchased the home in the name of Viteri’s mother.

As of March 2018, Viteri owed approximately $1.3 million in personal income taxes, and Viteri and Yepez owed an additional approximately $1.3 million in unpaid business-related taxes, the US Attorney said.

The couple is facing up to five years in federal prison.

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