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• Government Actions:

  NY AG & Acting Tax Commissioner Manion Announce Indictments Charging Nassau County Collision Repair Shops And Owner With Tax Fraud And Insurance Fraud
  The following describes a pending government action that has been formally brought by a government agency but has not yet been resolved. We are providing a summary of the government’s allegations, which have not yet been proven.
  
  On February 2, 2017, New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman and Acting Commissioner of Taxation and Finance Nonie Manion announced the arrest of Jose Cardona, 38, on four separate indictments related to his ownership and operation of two Nassau County collision repair shops. Jose Cardona's wife, Veronica Cardona, 38, and employee Peter Bifolco, 35, were also charged. The indictments were unsealed on February 1.
  
  Jose Cardona is the owner and operator of two collision centers:  No Limit Auto Body, Inc., also known as Perry’s Hub Auto Care, located at 10 Jerusalem Avenue in Hempstead, NY (“No Limit”); and Henry Street Auto Body, Inc., also known as No Limit Auto Body II (“No Limit II”), located at 110 Henry Street in Freeport, NY.  According to the prosecution, Jose Cardona and No Limit allegedly collected but failed to remit to New York State over $410,000 in sales taxes between June 2010 and June 2016, and Jose Cardona and No Limit II allegedly collected but failed to remit over $70,000 in sales tax between June 2011 and December 2015.
  Prosecutors further allege that Jose Cardona and his wife, Veronica Cardona, filed a false personal income tax return for 2011 and failed to file personal income tax returns for 2012 and 2013, thereby underpaying over $160,000 in personal income taxes.  Additionally, prosecutors allege that Jose Cardona, No Limit, and employee Peter Bifolco committed felony insurance fraud by allegedly adding additional damage to a car brought to the shop for repair and then billing for over $3,000 in unnecessary repairs.
  
  In addition to yesterday’s arrests of the defendants on the above indictments, investigators from the Attorney General’s Auto Insurance Fraud Unit and from the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance’s Criminal Investigation Division executed search warrants at Jose Cardona’s two collision centers in Freeport and Hempstead. If convicted of the top count charged, defendant Jose Cardona faces up to 5 to 15 years in prison; Peter Bifolco and Veronica Cardona each face up to 2 1/3 to 7 years in prison.
  
  The charges against the defendants are allegations, and they are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
  

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