Once a top Hudson County political insider, Thomas Bertoli was sentenced to one year of house arrest and three years on probation after admitting guilt to a single count of corrupt interference with the administration of Internal Revenue Service laws after a plea agreement with federal prosecutors.
Bertoli admitted to not paying federal income taxes from 2009 to 2013, to falsely stating to an IRS agent that he was a construction worker, and to hiding the existence of his firm, Urban Logistics. He said he received payment from political organizations and campaigns and from developers and construction firms for expediting services.
He was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Brian Martinotti.
The plea agreement carried a range of zero to eighteen months in prison.
“We are relieved and pleased to have this six-year odyssey end so Tom Bertoli can continue his excellent work and community involvement. It was a horribly trying experience made worse because at its root it was an investigation into political corruption,” said Jack Arsenault, Bertoli’s attorney. Between 2018 and 2020 the government conducted a wide-ranging grand jury investigation issuing over 200 subpoenas and questioning many witnesses seeking information about political corruption and Tom Bertoli. They found nothing so charged Tom with the original tax crimes that he tried to resolve in 2017-2018.”
Arsenault said that Bertoli “admitted his tax offense and we believe justice has been served by Tom’s probationary sentence.”
“Today’s sentencing ends a six-year investigation into Bertoli by the Justice Department, which charged him with tax evasion, corrupt interference with the administration of IRS laws, and failure to file a tax return in June 2020,” Arsenault said. “He was accused of not paying taxes between 2009 and 2012 and evading the assessment of taxes for 2014.”
A former union carpenter, Bertoli became a key Democratic strategist.
The sentencing was first reported by Law360.
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