Matawan Woman, Brother Charged With $1.5 Million Tax Fraud

MATAWAN, NJ — A Matawan woman and her brother were taken into police custody on Friday charges of tax evasion, announced U.S. Attorney Philip Sellinger.

Michelle Bocchieri, 42, of Matawan and her older brother, Enrico Cifelli, 51, of Holmdel, were each charged with one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States.

Federal prosecutors say that from 2013 through October 2020, Cifelli and Bocchieri hid more than $1.5 million in payroll taxes, penalties, and interest that Cifelli owed the IRS.

Cifelli owns two companies, Disposal Inc., a waste disposal business, and LBAB LLC, a construction business. Cifelli failed to pay the vast majority of payroll taxes for both, resulting in more than $1.5 million in taxes owned, plus penalties and interest, said the IRS.

To make it look as though Cifelli lacked the ability to pay his back taxes, the sister agreed to fund her brother's lifestyle through an entity she nominally owned, but Cifelli controlled, say the feds.

For instance, Bocchieri used her company to pay the down payment, mortgage and other expenses for Cifelli’s personal home.

They also say Cifelli submitted a false Offer in Compromise to the IRS in June 2016, making multiple misrepresentations and material omissions of his assets and household income, while offering to settle his tax debt for pennies on the dollar.

Cifelli is additionally charged with one count of evasion of payment of payroll taxes, four counts of failure to pay over payroll taxes, and one count of evasion of assessment of income tax.

The siblings were arrested and are facing up to five years in prison.