The owner of a Steuben County restaurant was sentenced Wednesday on tax fraud charges.
A U.S. District Court Judge in Rochester sentenced Theodore LaFrance to two years probation, which includes six months of home detention. The Hornell man was also ordered to pay more than $36,000 in restitution to the IRS.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, LaFrance hired a company to provide payroll services for his business, T&J Country Kitchen in Hornell. Between 2014 and 2018, LaFrance provided false information to the company regarding the wages paid to its cooking and cleaning staff. More specifically, he did not report the wages paid in cash to staff. By doing this, the payroll company used false information to complete and file quarterly forms. During that time, the Country Kitchen failed to report more than $235,000 in wages, which resulted in a tax loss of $36,000.
