Ridgefield Man Sentenced for Not Paying Taxes on Almost $700,000 in Income

A Ridgefield man was sentenced Tuesday to a year in prison and three years of supervised released after being found guilty of evading payment of nearly $200,000 in federal taxes over a five-year period.

Louis Vucci, Jr., 45, pleaded ‘guilty’ in October to one count of tax evasion for failing to report more than $678,000 in income he received between 2005 and 2009 while president and CEO of Diamond Ranch Foods. According to court documents, Vucci underreported his income by between $95,000 and $187,000 for each of the five years.

The unreported money was made out in weekly $2,500 paychecks from Diamond Ranch Foods to Vucci’s spouse and deposited in her bank account. (Vucci’s wife did not work for Diamond Ranch Foods at the time.)

Also, in 2008 and 2009, Vucci had a customer pay him for purchases with blank checks, which he then completed and deposited into his personal bank account. Those checks totaled $26,236 in 2008 and $65,387 in 2009.

In addition, large cash deposits totaling $16,100 in 2008 and $25,020 in 2009 were made into Vucci’s personal bank accounts — cash payments from another customer for sales to the customer.

From mid-2005 to mid-2007, Vucci and his spouse rented a home in Greenwich for $8,500 per month, had car expenses in excess of $1,000 per month, and paid a housekeeper for approximately 20 hours per week. In 2007, Vucci purchased a house in Ridgefield for $975,000 and continued to make the car payments while reporting an income of only $12,000.

Judge Vanessa Bryant ordered Vucci to pay back taxes in the amount of $196,425, as well as substantial interest and penalties.

Vucci was ordered to report to prison on Sept. 9, 2014.