Aging Mobster Nabbed On Tax Fraud Charges, Prosecutors Say

DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN — A 77-year-old suspected mobster hid undeclared income in a plumbing company to avoid paying taxes and now faces federal charges, according to prosecutors.

Salvatore DeMeo has been charged with tax evasion for not reporting the $2 million he earned when he sold his shares in downtown Brooklyn real estate in 2013 and 2014, Brooklyn federal prosecutors announced Thursday.

DeMeo ducked out of paying the IRS $365,000 in taxes by divvying up his earnings into eight small checks and depositing them with other businesses, according to a statement from United States Attorney’s Eastern District office.

DeMeo endorsed two checks worth $1 million to a plumbing company — which he had no apparent stake in — and signed another check worth about $356,000 to an unlicensed cashing business, said prosecutors.

The alleged mobster is slated to be arraigned on tax evasion charges in Brooklyn Federal Court Thursday afternoon, said prosecutors.

This is not the septuagenarian's first foray into a criminal courtroom — DeMeo was nabbed in “Operation Shark Bait” and charged with mob gambling, loan-sharking and bootlegging in 2016, the Daily News reported at the time.

DeMeo was also a famous member of the America’s Most Wanted list, after he gave federal agents the slip in April 2001.

Contact information for Demeo’s attorney was not immediately available.

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