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A Pennsport sporting goods store’s co-owner has been charged federally for tax evasion.
Mark Olkowski, 62, of North Wildwood, N.J., has been charged with 15 counts of wire fraud for unlawfully receiving unemployment compensation and eight counts of filling a false income tax return, according to a federal indictment filed Jan. 29.
Olkowski allegedly did not report to the Internal Revenue Service about $250,000 of gross partnership receipts for K & O Sports, 2001 E. Moyamensing Ave. — a clothing distributor for labor unions, municipalities, bars and political candidates that he co-owns with state Rep. William F. Keller, according to property records — as well as all of his “flow-through” income, which totaled more than $237,000, between 2006 and ’09, according to the indictment.
“Partnership income is not taxed at the partnership level,” according to the indictment. “Rather, partnership income is considered ‘flow-through’ income; that is, partnership income is to be split evenly between the partners and reported as business income on the partners’ personal federal income tax return.”
His reported income spanned $96,000 to $177,000 in ’06 and ’07, during which he supposedly did not report about $44,000 each year, according to the indictment. In ’07 and ’08, he reported about $30,000, but allegedly brought in up to $80,000 more each year. During the latter two years, he allegedly had declared he was not employed and collected $12,272 in unemployment compensation between July ’07 and February ’08. He then is believed to have claimed K & O employed him until he was eligible for benefits again and collected another $13,212 between July ’08 and March ’09.
If convicted, he could face more than 100 years in prison, five years supervised release, a $5.75-million fine and $2,300 special assessment, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office of Eastern Pennsylvania.
Contact Managing Editor Amanda L. Snyder at asnyder@southphillyreview.com or ext. 117.
Also in January’s Court Report:
Disorder in the court
More January courtroom action
Spadaccini strikes out as role model
In this week’s Police Report:
Tragedy at FDR
Tracking the crime
Illegal view
Web footage
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