Holmdel contractor charged with tax evasion BY KAREN E. BOWES Staff Writer HOLMDEL - FBI and IRS officials arrested a father/daughter team Friday for a tax evasion scheme in which they allegedly hid over $3.1 million to avoid paying taxes. Contractor Anthony R. Ambrosia, 49, of Holmdel, and daughter Lisa M. Derosa, no age given, of Scotch Plains, were both arrested on tax evasion charges pursuant to Backhoe Services Inc., their Bayonne-based contracting service that provides demolition, excavation and snow removal. After appearing before U.S. Magistrate Madeline Cox Arleo on Friday, Ambrosia was released on $1 million bail, secured by his Holmdel residence. His attorney, Anthony Iacullo, of Nutley, could not be reached for comment on Monday. Derosa was in Las Vegas on Friday but was expected to turn herself in to authorities on Monday. While Ambrosia started the business, Derosa is the now the current owner. Ambrosia is the general manager, running the corporation's day-to-day operations. According to the complaint, the pair established bank accounts in the names of fellow family members, including their underage children, then used those accounts to cash checks totaling $3,156,500 over a three-year period between 2004 and 2007. These checks were typically cashed in increments of approximately $9,500, just shy of the federal government's $10,000 limit regarding currency transaction reporting. An additional $466,885 in cash is also alleged to have been deposited into family accounts, also in amounts near $9,500. The FBI alleges that between January 2004 and May 2007, Derosa deposited approximately $353,000 in cash in amounts of approximately $2,900 each into her underage daughter's savings account at the Wachovia bank in Bayonne. Derosa was the sole signatory on this account. Ambrosia also opened personal savings accounts at Wachovia for two underage sons, according to the complaint. He was the sole signatory on a total of four such accounts, including two more at the Bayonne Community Bank. Between December 2005 and February 2007, Ambrosia is alleged to have structured approximately $80,000 in cash by depositing amounts of approximately $5,000 each into his sons' accounts at Wachovia. He's alleged to have structured another $386,885 more in cash into accounts belonging to his sons at the Bayonne Community Bank, between October 2005 and August 2006. Wachovia informed both individuals of the currency transaction requirements on two separate occasions, in 2004 and in 2006, according to the complaint.