Contractor admits falsification

Staff report

CLEVELAND

One of two operators of a Youngstown construction company has pleaded guilty to willful failure to truthfully account for and pay taxes due to the IRS and making false statements to a government agency.

Scott Bonamase, 48, of Streetsboro, entered his plea Tuesday before U.S. District Court Judge Christopher A. Boyko, who will sentence him at 11 a.m. May 13.

Judge Boyko has granted a request by co-defendant David Bonamase, 52, of Canfield, for a pre-plea, pre-sentence report by the court’s probation department.

While operating A. Bonamase Contracting Inc. between 2006 and 2009 and employing 10 to 25 people, Scott Bonamase under-reported employee gross wages to the IRS, and the two defendants omitted employee payments in company records, the U.S. attorney said.

Both men falsified prevailing wage records they provided to the government, the U.S. attorney said.

The defendants conspired to avoid paying more than $279,000 in taxes, the indictment said.

The case was investigated by the IRS and the U.S. departments of Labor and Housing and Urban Development.