'Jersey Shore' Star Gets 8 Months In Jail On Tax Evasion

NEWARK, NJ — Michael "The Situation" Sorrentino won't be vacationing with his "Jersey Shore" family for a while. The star of the MTV show was sentenced Friday to 8 months in federal prison for tax evasion on the $8.9 million he earned as a result of the show, federal authorities said Friday.

Sorrentino, 36, and his brother Marc Sorrentino, 38, pleaded guilty to one count each of tax evasion in January before U.S. District Judge Susan D. Wigenton. Mike Sorrentino admitted taking certain actions to conceal some of his income to avoid paying the full amount of taxes he owed, including receiving payments in cash and making cash into bank accounts in amounts less than $10,000 each so that these deposits would not come to the attention of the IRS, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito said.

On Friday, Wigenton sentenced both. In addition to the prison term, Mike Sorrentino was sentenced to two years of supervised release, 500 hours of community service, $123,000 in restitution (which has already been paid) and fined $10,000.

Marc Sorrentino, who admitted to underreporting his personal income in 2011, 2012 and 2013, was sentenced to two years in prison, one year of supervised release, and fined $7,500, with restitution to be determined at a later date.

Sorrentino, a 2000 graduate of Manalapan High School, has been part of the cast of "Jersey Shore Family Vacation," the revival of the MTV show that followed the antics of the group of 20-somethings through successive summer vacations in Seaside Heights. On Friday, he was joined in Newark by his castmates, including Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi, Jenni "JWoww" Farley, Paul "Pauly D" Delvecchio, Deena Cortese, Vinny Guadagnino and Ronnie Ortiz-Magro, according to a PIX11 report.

Sorrentino and his brother initially were indicted in in September 2014 on charges of tax evasion and falsifying records, as authorities alleged they created businesses including Situation Nation Inc., to "take advantage of Michael Sorrentino's celebrity status," according to documents filed in the case.

Sorrentino faced a maximum sentence of five years in federal prison, though a CBS17 report said federal prosecutors were seeking a 14-month jail term. His attorneys were seeking probation. Marc Sorrentino faced a maximum sentence of three years. Both men could be fined up to $250,000.

The brothers conspired to defraud the federal government by not paying all the income tax owed on about $8.9 million Mike Sorrentino earned from 2010 to 2012, authorities said.

In keeping close to his Jersey ties and the "gym-tan-laundry" motto of "Jersey Shore," Sorrentino opened a tanning salon in Middletown in 2014. But Boca Tanning Club shut down less than a year later after it was evicted for failure to pay the rent, according to NJ.com.

The NBC News report said Gregg Mark, Sorrentino's accountant, admitted to filing the fraudulent returns in December 2015. The accountant admitted to defrauding the government out of $550,000 to $1.5 million in tax revenue. Gregg Mark has not yet been sentenced.

This article will be updated after the sentence is announced.

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Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino, photo by Drew Gurian/Invision/Associated Press