Feds Indict Edison Businessman For Tax Evasion

EDISON, NJ – An Edison resident, who owns a roofing company, and one other were indicted for failure to file tax returns and pay taxes, U.S. Attorney Alina Habba said.

Steve Mitchell, also known as “Sonny Mitchell,” of Edison, and Samuel Mitchell of Bohemia, New York were charged with four counts each of tax evasion.

According to documents filed in this case, Steve Mitchell, Samuel Mitchell, and others operated roofing businesses under several names.

Despite earning approximately $881,730.26 and $1,397,960.21, respectively, in income from roofing customers from 2018 through 2021, Steve Mitchell and Samuel Mitchell failed to file tax returns with the IRS and pay tax on their income.

Instead, they took affirmative steps to conceal their income from the IRS, including providing false social security numbers to check cashing businesses that they used to convert customers’ checks to cash, which prevented the check cashing businesses from reporting the cashed checks to the IRS as required by law, court documents said.

In addition to the income from the roofing customers, Steve Mitchell also received income from an elderly person for what they thought was an investment in a COVID-19 mask-making business.

In 2020 and 2021, Steve Mitchell converted over $4.2 million in checks from the elderly person into cash, authorities said.

The tax evasion counts each carries a maximum potential penalty of five years’ imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000.

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