Matthew Czap, age 68, formerly of Newark, was sentenced on July 12 by Chief U. S. District Court Leonard P. Stark to one year and one day of imprisonment and two years of supervised release.
The sentencing came after Czap pleaded guilty on March 22, to one count of structuring financial transactions to avoid currency reporting requirements.
According to prosecutors, between November 2, 2015 and March 30, 2016, Czap made eighteen separate cash deposits, totaling $163,460, each in an amount of less than $10,000.
Czap made many of the deposits on successive days, in amounts staying under the reporting requirement of $10,000.
Dating back to January 2013, Czap structured approximately $1.2 million of cash deposits, while aware that the currency represented the proceeds of his wife’s activities.
Click here for information on the charges faced by his wife, Roberta, who faces 20 years in prison.
Acting U.S. Attorney David Weiss stated, “The Court’s sentence properly reflects the serious nature of structuring, which is, at its core, a form of money laundering. Mr. Czap’s conduct helped to conceal the proceeds of fraud and allowed the crime to go undetected for years. While he didn’t personally steal the money, he enjoyed the benefits of it. Individuals contemplating similar conduct should understand that their crimes will have the most serious of consequences.”
The case was investigated by the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Lesley Wolf. Acting U.S. Attorney Weiss thanked the investigators for their hard work in pursuing this investigation.
