RALEIGH – Concord, NC, businessman Charles Joseph Pippa, 66, pled guilty today, March 27, 2023, in Wake County Superior Court to felony tax charges filed by the North Carolina Department of Revenue. Pippa, of Hilton Head Island, SC, pled guilty to three counts of Aid and Abet Embezzlement of State Property.
Wake County Superior Court Judge Keith Gregory sentenced Pippa to a 16-month minimum, 29-month maximum prison term. The sentence was suspended and Pippa was placed on supervised probation for 24 months. As a condition of probation, Pippa was ordered to be placed under electronic home monitoring for a period of 60 days and complete 100 hours of community service. Pippa paid $150,625.13 in restitution prior to the plea.
Information presented in court showed that Pippa, President of Pippa’s Cafe, Inc., did assist, or aid and abet the business to embezzle, misapply, and convert to its own use approximately $139,977 in North Carolina Sales Tax during the period of February 1, 2017 through December 31, 2019. Additional information presented showed that Pippa, President of Frogels, Inc., doing business as The Sweet Spot, did assist, or aid and abet the business to embezzle, misapply, and convert to its own use approximately $10,647 in North Carolina Sales Tax during the period of February 1, 2019 through December 31, 2019. During these periods of time, Pippa was the responsible person of both businesses and acting as an agent of the State who was under a duty to collect, hold in trust, and remit North Carolina Sales Taxes to the North Carolina Department of Revenue
The charges against Pippa resulted from an investigation by special agents with the Department’s Criminal Investigations Division in Raleigh. The case was prosecuted by the special prosecutions attorneys in the office of the North Carolina Attorney General.
The North Carolina Department of Revenue funds public services benefiting the people of North Carolina. We administer the tax laws and collect the taxes due in an impartial, consistent, secure, and efficient manner.
NC Dept of Revenue News Release • March 27, 2023 • Donna-maria Harris, Public Affairs Director
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