The federal Internal Revenue Service has filed another tax lien against Ansonia Mayor David Cassetti.
The lien — filed by an IRS agent in City Hall Aug. 14 — says Cassetti owes the federal government $59,384.19 dating back to 2011, though the “date of assessment” listed on the document is July 6, 2015.
It is the fifth federal tax lien filed against Cassetti since January. The liens total $173,208.06.
Cassetti said Tuesday (Sept. 1) that the latest lien, like the other liens filed earlier this year, relate to an embezzlement allegedly perpetrated by a former accountant at his business.
“That is the final one,” Cassetti said of the lien filed last month.
Police have been probing the allegation since last summer.
Neither Cassetti nor cops have named the accountant at the center of the probe.
Lt. Andrew Cota said Tuesday that cops are in the process of putting together an arrest warrant in the case.
“We’re preparing it,” Cota said. “It is in process, still under investigation, and still moving forward.”
The mayor said he is negotiating with the feds to resolve his federal tax issues.
“There was an investment I made that I took some funds out of and I’ve got to pay taxes on them,” Cassetti said, blaming the oversight on the unnamed accountant.
“Everything’s in the negotiating stage right now with them,” the mayor went on. “Hopefully it’ll be resolved within the next month or so.”
In addition to the federal tax liabilities, Cassetti’s business, Birm‑1 Construction, was also late with several local property tax and sewer use bills totaling about $18,000.
The company’s Riverside Drive property also faces foreclosure.
In July the mayor produced documents showing the foreclosure will be resolved — and the unpaid local property taxes will be paid off — as part of the sale of his company’s real estate on Riverside Drive. The sale has not yet closed.
Reaction
Cassetti’s Democratic opponent in this November’s municipal election, Edward Adamowski, said it’s up to the city’s residents to decide whether the mayor’s tax difficulties should have a bearing on whether he should get a second term in office.
“That’s not even going to be a main part of my campaign,” Adamowski said.
In accepting the Democrats’ nomination to run against Cassetti in July, Adamowski said Ansonia is “the only community in the State of Connecticut where the mayor hands out our tax bills but refuses to pay his own,” according to a copy of his prepared remarks.
“That’s simply something for the voters to dictate if that’s what they want running the city of Ansonia,” Adamowski said.
In an unscientific poll that ran in an April Valley Indy story revealing Cassetti’s tax issues, 54 percent of those taking part said Cassetti’s business dealings affected their opinion of him as mayor.
Adamowski said he’ll focus more on the Republicans’ use of the city’s reserve fund to deliver tax relief to residents.
“My gameplan is simply going to be to inform the voters on what is going to happen with them draining the reserve fund,” Adamowski said.
