Bergen County broker charged of tax evasion

A Bergen County man was arrested on four counts of tax evasion. Jason Kronick, 48, of Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey, was charged by indictment on Aug. 25, 2021, with three counts of income tax evasion and one count of employment tax evasion.

He made his initial appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge André M. Espinosa in Newark federal court and was released on $1 million unsecured bond.

According to U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig, documents filed in this case and statements made in court Kronick evaded payment of more than $4.3 million in income taxes for the tax years 2008 through 2010,, not including penalties and interest, despite having earned approximately $20 million in taxable income.

Kronick used approximately $1.5 million from his business bank accounts to buy approximately 40 rare and expensive watches; used at least $1.9 million from the business accounts to pay for home renovations; used company funds to pay at least $700,000 in personal credit card bills; transferred more than $700,000 from his business accounts to various casinos, where he converted the money to chips, gambled, and then redeemed chips for cash; and cashed approximately $160,000 in checks at check-cashing businesses to conceal the proceeds from the IRS.

Kronick also filed a statement with the IRS in 2011, falsely claiming that he had no income for that year, when in fact he received more than $2.8 million in income.

Each of the four counts of tax evasion carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) asserted that Kronick, while associated with two member firms, engaged in unauthorized trading, had taken unauthorized trading position, and willfully failed to disclose two unsatisfied judgments totaling over $330,000.

The decision to revoke his stock broker license became final May 2, 2017.

FINRA is a not-for-profit, self-regulatory organization (SRO) responsible for regulating its member broker-dealers and their associated persons pursuant to the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (Exchange Act). FINRA supports the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC or Commission) in overseeing one subset of the securities industry – more than 3,400 registered broker-dealers and more than 600,000 registered individuals.

Records show he was fired from jobs at SecureVest Financial Group, a full service brokerage firm, and Standard Credit Securities Inc., a broker-dealer regulated by the U.S. Security and Exchange Commission.

Kronick’s two unsatisfied judgments against him totaling $330,574 did not preclude him from working as a stockbroker, however, he failed to report those judgments as required by FINRA.

Not only did Kronick not self-report the judgments, they say that while changing jobs he completed an employment application for Vandham Securities Corp. The application asked, “Do you have any unsatisfied judgments or liens against you?” FINRA says he lied and answered “no.”