What to Know
- Michael "The Situation" Sorrentino and his brother, Marc, face federal tax fraud charges
- The brothers plan to plead guilty in the case, according to documents filed by the Justice Department
- "The Situation" appeared on all six seasons of the MTV reality show "Jersey Shore"
Former "Jersey Shore" star Michael "The Situation" Sorrentino and his brother, Marc, have “agreed to plead guilty” in a federal tax evasion case in New Jersey, according to documents filed by the U.S. Justice Department on Wednesday.
A letter filed with the court says Sorrentino and his brother, Marc, plan to plead guilty at a court hearing on Friday in Newark.
Federal prosecutors have accused the Sorrentino brothers of filing fake tax returns and claiming luxury car and clothing purchases were business expenses. The two pleaded not guilty last April to additional tax fraud charges.
Sorrentino's lawyer didn't comment Wednesday on what charges his client would plead guilty. Last year, Klingeman told reporters outside a federal courthouse in Newark: “This is a complicated case — Michael is not a complicated person.”
In 2014, the Sorrentino brothers pleaded not guilty to charges they filed bogus tax returns on nearly $9 million and claimed millions in personal expenses as business expenses.
Michael Sorrentino was indicted last April on charges including tax evasion, structuring bank deposits to avoid reporting requirements and falsifying records. Marc Sorrentino was charged with falsifying records to obstruct a grand jury investigation. The counts range from conspiracy to defraud the United States, which carries a five-year maximum prison sentence, to false filing and failure to file.
Prosecutors allege Michael Sorrentino didn't pay federal income tax owed on the $8.9 million he earned from 2010 to 2012, failed to file a personal tax return for 2011 and filed fake corporate returns for one of the companies the brothers set up after he gained fame on the show. Prosecutors say he also made a series of bank deposits of under $10,000 to avoid bank reporting requirements.
After the brothers were served with grand jury subpoenas seeking records from their companies, prosecutors allege Marc Sorrentino falsified records to reclassify taxable payments to himself as nontaxable payments and business deductions.
"The Situation" appeared on all six seasons of the MTV reality show, which followed the lives of rowdy housemates on New Jersey's famed Atlantic shore and ran from 2009 to 2012.
