Earlier this year, reality TV star Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino and his brother, Marc Sorrentino, pleaded guilty to violating federal tax laws. Mike Sorrentino, 36, pleaded guilty to one count of tax evasion, and Marc Sorrentino, 38, pleaded guilty to one count of aiding in the preparation of a fraudulent tax return. Today the Sorrentinos learned their fate: Mike was sentenced to eight months in prison, and his brother, Marc Sorrentino, was sentenced to 24 months in prison.
The Sorrentino brothers had originally faced a slew of charges. In 2014, the Department of Justice announced that Mike had been charged with one count of conspiracy, two counts of filing false tax returns for 2010 through 2012, and one count for allegedly failing to file a tax return for 2011. At the same time, Marc was charged with one count of conspiracy and three counts of filing false tax returns. In 2017, the Department of Justice announced additional charges against the pair. Mike and Marc both denied any wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty.
However, in January, Mike admitted as part of a plea agreement that he earned taxable income in 2011, including some paid in cash, and that he concealed a portion of his income to evade paying the full amount of taxes he owed. He also made cash deposits into bank accounts in amounts less than $10,000, to ensure that these deposits would not come to the attention of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
As part of the plea, Marc admitted that he earned taxable income in 2010 and that he assisted his accountants in preparing his personal tax return by willfully providing them with false information and fraudulently underreporting his income.
The Sorrentinos controlled companies, which handled endorsement deals and appearance fees that Mike earned from his career as a reality TV star. In 2009, more than a million viewers tuned into MTV to watch Sorrentino and seven other cast members of Jersey Shore spend a summer in Seaside Heights, New Jersey. A half year later, nearly 5 million viewers watched the premiere of the second season, and by the end of 2010 the cast had crashed the MTV Video Music Awards and found themselves on Barbara Walters’ 10 Most Fascinating People list. Mike went on to appear on shows like Marriage Boot Camp: Reality Stars 3, Worst Cooks in America (Celebrity Edition) with the Food Network’s Rachael Ray and Anne Burrell, Celebrity Big Brother 10 and ABC’s Dancing with the Stars. But, the feds alleged that as the cash rolled in, Mike and Marc took steps to evade paying tax on the money, including using the companies to deduct personal expenses like “high-end vehicles, purchases of high-end clothing, and personal grooming expenses” and understating the amount of income.
In 2015, Gregg Mark, a former tax preparer for the Sorrentinos, pleaded guilty to filing fraudulent tax returns for the pair for the 2010 and 2011 tax years. Mark pleaded guilty on information charging him with one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States. When charges are brought on information, it generally means that the defendant has accepted the charges and is cooperating with the investigation. That likely affected the outcome of the case, since the Sorrentinos eventually also took a plea.
The Department of Justice’s Tax Division and the IRS Criminal Investigations Division (IRS-CI) worked together on the case and released statements following the sentencing. “Tax crimes, plain and simple, are an outright theft from the hardworking American public,” stated John R. Tafur, Special Agent in Charge, IRS-CI, Newark Field Office. “The courts recognize the severity of these crimes and now Michael and Marc Sorrentino are convicted felons with prison sentences to serve for intentionally disregarding their tax obligations to our country.”
In addition to prison time, Judge Wigenton ordered Mike to serve two years of supervised release and pay $123,913 in restitution and a criminal fine of $10,000. Marc was ordered to serve one year of supervised release and pay a criminal fine of $7,500.
