Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino Pleads Guilty in Tax Fraud Case

Jersey Shore star and his brother Marc Sorrentino, who also pleaded guilty, could be sentenced to jail

By Corinne Heller Jan 19, 2018 4:56 PMTags
Marc Sorrentino, Mike Sorrentino, The SituationDavid Becker/WireImage

Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino has pleaded guilty to a charge of tax evasion and faces a maximum sentence of five years in jail.

The 36-year-old Jersey Shore star's 38-year-old brother Marc Sorrentino, who has worked with him, pleaded guilty to aiding in the preparation of a false and fraudulent tax return and faces up to three years behind bars, New Jersey's District Attorney's Office said in a statement obtained by E! News. The two pleaded guilty at a New Jersey court on Friday.

"What the defendants admitted to today, quite simply, is tantamount to stealing money from their fellow taxpayers," U.S. Attorney Carpenito said. "All of us are required by law to pay our fair share of taxes. Celebrity status does not provide a free pass from this obligation."

The court approved Mike's request to travel to Florida for the Jersey Shore Family Vacation reunion show while under probation. Sentencing is set for April 25.

Last year, he and brother Marc Sorrentino, who worked with him, pleaded not guilty after being indicted for tax evasion, structuring and falsifying records, which followed a 2014 indictment for other tax offenses, in which federal prosecutors accused them of failing to pay taxes on $8.9 million in earnings.

Elder Ordonez/INFphoto.com

Prosecutors said that Mike admitted that in the 2011 tax year, he "earned taxable income, including some that was paid in cash, and that he took certain actions to conceal some of his income to avoid paying the full amount of taxes he owed." He also "made cash deposits into bank accounts in amounts less than $10,000 each so that these deposits would not come to the attention of the IRS."

His brother, they said, admitted that in between the 2010 to 2012 tax years, he earned taxable income and "assisted his accountants in preparing his personal tax return for those years, willfully providing them with false information."

In 2015, a former tax preparer for the Sorrentinos pleaded guilty to filing fraudulent tax returns for them.

"His personal tax returns under-reported his total income and taxable income," prosecuters said.

It was recently reported that the Sorrentinos would plead guilty, without describing what charges, and would face more time behind bars than was decided.

In addition to the potential jail sentences, the charges both brothers face are punishable by a potential $250,000 fine, prosecutors said.