Former City Employee Sentenced for Tax Evasion

The former chief of staff for Central Ward Councilman Darrin Sharif was sentenced Thursday to six months in prison for claiming nearly 100 phony federal tax exemptions, the US Attorney’s Office announced. 

Richard Allen Whitten, 50, of Newark, will also serve six months home confinement. Whitten, , had served in Sharif’s office from 2006 to 2008 before taking a job in the office of the city business administator, where he worked until December 2009. He was sentenced in federal court Thursday. 

In 2006, Whitten filed a W-4 containing the false exemptions and kept it on file with the city until 2008, admitting that his aim was to avoid paying federal income tax. Whitten had also admitted he failed to pay taxes in 2007 and had failed to file returns in three other years, the US Attorney’s office said in a statement.

In 2006, he owed more than $10,000 in federal taxes on $55,991 of taxable income, the US Attorney also said.

Whitten again filed a W-4 containing 99 exemptions in 2008, shortly before becoming a senior assistant in the business administrator’s office, and failed to pay federal taxes in 2008 and 2009.