Cortland Pizza and Bar Owners Pay Back Underreported Sales Taxes

 Two Cortland County bar and pizza shop owners have to lay out a lot of dough for failing to pay New York State sales taxes.

New York State Attorney General Letitia James says George Seibel of Homer and Anthony Caruso of Cortland, owners of A Pizza and More, Dark Horse Tavern, Hairy Tony’s and Dasher’s Corner Pub, pleaded guilty to underreporting more than $4-million in taxable sales.

The 60-year-olds were arrested following an investigation by the Attorney General’s office and the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance.

The pair owned and operated three pizzerias in Cortland, Homer and Tully named A Pizza and More and an audit revealed the underreporting of sales tax returns between December 2011 and the end of May 2015 totaling more than $1,948,166.04 and the underreporting of sales tax revenues for Hairy Tony’s pub in Cortland totaling more than $1,637,649.90, sale tax revenues of $1,098,799.73 for Dark Horse Tavern in Cortland and $98,629.32 for Dasher’s Corner Pub and restaurant in Homer.

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The pair has repaid the full $479,203.03 in owed taxes from six businesses throughout Cortland and Onondaga Counties.

Seibel and Caruso were both sentenced to one-year conditional discharges.