Owner Of Financially Troubled Cherry Hill Restaurant Indicted For Tax Fraud

CHERRY HILL, NJ — The owner of a well-known and financially troubled Cherry Hill restaurant was indicted on 17 counts involving tax fraud, authorities announced Tuesday.

Andrew Cosenza Jr. owns The Bistro — a longtime Italian restaurant in Cherry Hill Mall that shuttered in July on a bankruptcy judge's orders.

Cosenza, 57, of Cherry Hill, was indicted Oct. 29 on one count of second-degree failure to make required disposition of property received, eight counts of third-degree filing a false tax return, and eight counts of third-degree failure to turn over collected, withheld taxes.

The Bistro filed for bankruptcy twice in recent years — in 2017 and then in May.

State authorities began investigating Cosenza and the restaurant in mid-2023. They found that the business collected sales tax from its customers and didn't turn it over to the state.

Cosenza failed to remit $271,621 in sales tax to the New Jersey Division of Taxation in 2021 and 2022, according to the NJ Office of the Attorney General.

The Bistro had been a Cherry Hill Mall fixture since 1998. It closed in July after a bankruptcy judge ordered the business to be liquidated for outstanding rent fees.

At the time, Cosenza told The Courier-Post that the shutdown would be temporary.

Defense attorney information for Cosenza wasn't immediately available.