An owner of Teasers, a Phoenix strip club has been indicted by a federal grand jury with filing false tax returns. Cynthia DiBernardo was charged with the crimes after her ex-husband, Tony DiBernardo, pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with authorities as part of a deal.
Cynthia DiBernardo is accused of falsifying tax returns for three years on income from Teasers Cabaret and Patio. She is charged with eight counts of filing false returns.
She faces a maximum $100,000 fine, three years in prison and five years’ probation on each count.
IRS investigators found that DiBernardo used handwritten ledgers to hide cash collected through tips, house-fees from dancers and payments from customers for private entertainment in a VIP area.
DiBernardo’s ex-husband, Tony DiBernardo, confessed that he “knew that the return, which I signed under penalty of perjury, did not include all of my income from Teasers Inc., which I operated with my ex-wife. For tax years 2006 through 2009, (Cynthia DiBernardo) and I failed to report approximately $350,000 in cash revenue.”
Authorities agreed to recommend to the court a reduced sentence in exchange for DiBernardo’s guilty plea on a single count of filing a false return.