This guy sure knew how to mount a full-court press.
A former Chelsea Piers basketball referee took nearly 100 friends and family members with him yesterday to plead for leniency for masterminding a massive tax-evasion scheme at the West Side sports complex.
About half of Peter Iulo’s supporters were forced to stand in Manhattan federal court as he was sentenced to two years in the slammer and ordered to pay the IRS $200,000 in restitution.
Iulo, who also works as a bartender at the landmark Brooklyn watering hole Farrell’s, broke down in sobs after being slapped with the punishment.
“Thank you very much for showing support for me and my family,” Iulo, 54, tearfully told the crowd in Manhattan federal court.
“I’m sorry I embarrassed you. Please keep an eye on my wife.”
Earlier, Judge Barbara Jones said she could see the shame on the faces of many of those who packed her courtroom.
But, she said, “brazen is the only word I can use to describe” how Iulo ran a 12-year scam in which he and about two dozen fellow refs used stolen identities to avoid paying taxes on their income for officiating games at Chelsea Piers.
Under terms of his sentence, Iulo must personally pay $80,000 of the restitution and share responsibility for the rest with four others convicted in the long-running fraud.
According to the feds, the refs received up to $40 per game but conspired to get paid under fake names to take advantage of an IRS rule that only requires an employer to report a worker’s income if it tops $600 a year.
Prosecutor Daniel Levy urged a “substantial” sentence to “send a message” to other would-be tax cheats.
Levy noted that in addition to helping others dodge their duty to the feds, Iulo “simply decided he wasn’t going to file any tax returns” and “basically checked out of the tax system for as long as the IRS has records.”
“The government submits this wasn’t a lack of judgment,” Levy said.
Defense lawyer Patricia Pileggi argued that Iulo’s punishment had “already begun” because he can no longer work as a ref, will lose his bartending job at Farrell’s and has been the subject of humiliating news reports.