City Carting manager pleads guilty to federal tax charges over strip club spending
The manager of a company that handles Westchester's recycling operation pleaded guilty Friday to federal tax charges related to hundreds of thousands of dollars in company funds he used at strip clubs and for other personal expenses.
Christopher Oxer, 51, admitted that he filed false tax returns over three years by failing to report more than $800,000 he spent using a credit card of City Carting of Westchester, a company run by his father. The unreported income helped Oxer avoid paying $233,000 in federal taxes and $45,000 in state taxes.
Oxer and City Carting of Westchester still face state charges accusing them of passing off $135,000 of Oxer's spending at two Manhattan strip clubs as repairs, tire purchases and other business expenses.
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City Carting runs the county's Municipal Recovery Facility in Yonkers and three transfer stations in White Plains, Cortlandt and Mount Vernon and under a contract that began nearly two decades ago and was renewed in 2019 for $123 million over five years.
The criminal case in Westchester led the county Solid Waste Commission to revoke the company's license earlier this year. But City Carting has been allowed to continue running the recycling operation, and that could last until at least March 2023 while the county looks for a replacement.
The federal charges were brought in May and accused Oxer of leaving his personal spending on the corporate credit card off of his tax returns in 2017, 2018 and 2019. In addition to the strip club spending, he used the credit card for vacations, escorts and expenses related to a business he runs in New England.
He admitted in White Plains federal court Friday that he used the company credit card for personal items rather than business expenses and that he knew it was illegal to leave that off his tax returns.
"I signed those returns knowing they did not include that income," he told U.S. District Judge Cathy Seibel.
She scheduled sentencing for Jan. 6.
Oxer faces up to three years in prison for each year he filed the false returns.
He has agreed not to appeal any sentence between or below 30 to 37 months in prison and a fine of $95,000. He is also expected to be ordered to pay restitution for the state and federal taxes he failed to pay.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: City Carting of Westchester manager pleads guilty to tax charges
