Lerma Aquino, the business manager of TGI Friday’s on Guam, was indicted for allegedly under-reporting employee’s tips and service charges and cheating the IRS of money owed to them. It’s alleged that Aquino avoided paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in employment taxes.
Some of the examples in the indictment include: In the fourth quarter of 2010, Aquino reported that her employees received approximately $30,800 in tips when they actually received over $167,000 in tips and service charges. For the first quarter of 2011, the amount of reported tips received was $33,600 instead of the actual amount of $216,600. And again in the second quarter of 2011, the correct amount of tips was $157,000 but reported as only $34,300. In total, the underreporting caused a loss to the United States over $225,000.
Aquino allegedly directed her employees to report a flat $1-$2 an hour as tip income instead of the actual amount early. She also either modified or refused to accept truthful tip reports.