(Photo by Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post via Getty Images) PHILADELPHIA - Federal officials have announced that two owners of Tony Luke’s, a famous Philadelphia cheesesteak restaurant, have pleaded guilty in a tax fraud scheme.
Tony Lucidonio Sr., or Tony Luke Sr., and Nicholas Lucidonio entered their guilty pleas on Monday, admitting to participating in a plot to evade payroll taxes between 2006 and 2016, according to officials.
Authorities say evidence summarized in a Monday hearing showed that the duo paid a significant number of their employees partially ‘off-the-books.’"To avoid withholding and paying over to the IRS employment taxes of the ‘off-the-books’ amount, defendants gave their employees paychecks that reflected a portion of the employees’ hourly wages with the required taxes withheld," read a release from the U.S.
Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. "However, the wages the defendants paid and reported in this fashion represented only a portion of the true hours the employees worked."The Lucidonios then had their employees endorse their checks and return them in exchange for envelopes containing cash, officials said.