Jail term for Camden business owner

CAMDEN - A Camden trucking firm owner, who admitted to evading more than $300,000 in employee payroll taxes, has received an 18-month prison term.

George Valentine, a Williamstown resident, failed to account for payroll taxes at two city businesses, J&F Trucking and River Road Trucking, according to the Internal Revenue Service. He also did not file required forms reflecting employee taxes that were to be withheld and paid to the IRS, the agency said Friday.

The taxes went unpaid between 2007 and 2012, according to the Newark Field Office of the IRS.

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It said Valentine, who pleaded guilty to tax offenses in March, admitted he had not paid "at least" $187,000 owed on behalf of workers at J&F Trucking and at least $128,000 owed for employees of River Road Trucking.

River Road Trucking also faces a civil suit from the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission, which alleges the firm owes more than $21,000 in unpaid tolls. The firm recently appeared on the Pennsylvania agency's list of top toll offenders, made up mostly of trucking firms that routinely use E-ZPass lanes without  E-ZPass accounts.

River Road Trucking also was the scene of a murder in February 2015, when a long-time employee, Harry J. Hogans Jr., 66, of Camden, was found fatally beaten in a recliner at the Cramer Hill business. Authorities contend a co-worker, Antonio Cunningham, killed Hogans during a robbery.

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The two men shared makeshift living quarters at the trucking business.

Valentine also is to serve three years of supervised release under the sentence imposed Oct. 28 by U. S. District Judge Noel L. Hillman,

Jim Walsh; (856) 486-2646; jwalsh@gannettnj.com