Businessman indicted for tax evasion

Giancarlo Pertile, who owned and operated of Art Marble Design Inc. of Moorpark until 2002, was indicted last week in United States District Court in Los Angeles on five counts of tax evasion.

Pertile allegedly did not report the profits from his business on his personal tax return for 1998 through 2002.

According to the indictment, Pertile deposited business receipts into a bank account which he concealed from his bookkeeper and accountant. As a result of this action, fraudulent corporate income tax returns were filed with the Internal Revenue Service, falsely understating the company's income for five years.

Further, Pertile is alleged to have lied to the IRS during a civil audit.

In addition to the false corporate income tax returns, Pertile filed individual income tax returns for 1998 through 2002 that falsely understated his taxable income.

In three of the five years mentioned in the indictment, Pertile claimed that he did not have taxable income. He had indicated on those returns that he had no tax due to the IRS.

In two of the years, Pertile filed returns that indicated that he had a small amount of taxable income and tax owing to the government.

If convicted of all the counts, Pertile faces a statutory maximum of 25 years in federal prison and fines totaling $500,000.

An indictment is a document which contains allegations of violations committed by the defendant, who is presumed innocent until proven guilty.