Man Who Sued Women Over Facebook Comments Sentenced For Tax Fraud
CHICAGO — The Des Plaines man who sued dozens of women for "doxing" him in the "Are We Dating the Same Guy?" Facebook group was sentenced to a year in federal prison for overstating his charitable expenses and businesses on his income tax returns. Nikko D'Ambrosio, 32, was convicted in January of two counts of making false statements on his personal income tax returns in the years 2019 and 2020. He was sentenced at a hearing Wednesday before U.S. District Judge Thomas Durkin in Chicago.D'Ambrosio claimed to have driven more than 474,000 miles on business-related travel as a salesman for the electronic sweepstakes gambling kiosk operator MAC-T. He also falsely claimed to have spent more than $263,000 on business-related meals during that period, records show.Over those two years, D'Ambrosio claimed to have donated $64,500 to St. John Cantius Church in Chicago, but its business manager testified that there was no record of any charitable contributions from him in 2019 or 2020, according to the government's sentencing memo."[D'Ambrosio's] tax fraud was egregious, and part of a pattern of filing false tax returns once he began to earn significant income from MAC-T," Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Rothblatt said in the memo, asking the judge to sentence him to between two and three years in prison.Rothblatt said evidence presented at trial showed D'Ambrosio also filed false tax returns in 2018, which likewise included "inflated meal expenses, inflated mileage figures and false charitable contributions."D'Ambrosio did not file any tax returns in 2021 or 2022, Rothblatt said, citing IRS records, leaving him owing more than $415,000 in federal taxes and $64,500 in state taxes.At trial, he blamed his cousin, who helped prepare his tax returns. In the defense sentencing memo, D'Ambrosio's attorneys Christoper Grohman and Ryan Levitt questioned prosecutors' suggestion in their version of the offense that the cousin had been innocent of wrongdoing.They noted that the cousin, "despite being highly educated in this field, did not seem to notice that the mileage deductions equaled twice the distance to the moon and back or that the business meals expenses would have been the equivalent of nightly reservations for one of Alinea’s first-floor gallery tables."Prices at the three Michelin-starred Chicago restaurant range from $400 to $500. The defense attorneys note that the cousin, who is still employed at the IRS, emailed a tax preparer to say that D'Ambrosio did a "nice job on his work papers" but claimed not to actually have looked at the papers."A more plausible explanation would be that one cousin reached out to the other cousin, and the cousin that both works for the IRS and has prepared the other cousin’s tax returns for years, told the tax-filing cousin that he can claim whatever bogus deductions he wants and the chances of him getting caught are negligibly low," Grohman and Levitt said. "Perhaps where the truth lies on this point is neither here nor there."Days before his case was due to go before a jury, D'Ambrosio made national news headlines by filing a civil lawsuit against more than two dozen women after one of them posted about him on a private Facebook group.D'Ambrosio, who was indicted in May 2023, had a brief and "unremarkable" handful of dates with a woman who posted about him online in November 2023, according to the putative federal class action filed on his behalf against that women and the moderators of the "Are We Dating the Same Guy" online community.With more than 3 million registered users, the network of "red flag awareness groups" allow members to share dating profiles along with warnings and discussions that can include personal details.A screenshot included in Nikko D'Ambrosio's defamation and anti-doxing lawsuit against more than two dozen women filed in January in federal court in Chicago. (Court exhibit/Northern District of Illinois)In addition to claims of defamation, D'Ambrosio's lawsuit alleges violations of the new Illinois Civil Liability for Doxing Act, which passed the Illinois General Assembly unanimously a year ago, sponsored by Sen. Julie Morrison (D-Lake Forest) and State Rep. Jennifer Gong-Gershowitz (D-Glenview).According to D'Ambrosio's 66-page complaint against the woman who briefly dated him, her family, the moderators of the "online group dedicated to the harassment and belittlement of men" and Facebook parent company Meta, he suffered reputation damage, emotional distress, privacy violations and a fear of stalking.The Chicago subgroup of the Are We Dating The Same Guy community has more than 80,000 members, and "thousands of men have been potentially defamed" by members of the group but remain "entirely unaware of the attacks on their character" due to the private nature of the group, the complaint alleges. "[A]s a direct and proximate cause of the Defendants actions, [D'Ambrosio] has suffered damages by way of significant emotional distress, disruption to his life, and fear of serious bodily injury at the hands of one of the group’s thousands of unidentified members."Two members of the jury at his four-day trial indicated they had heard the stories about D'Ambrosio's defamation suit, the Chicago Tribune reported, including one who was among the group who found him guilty on both counts after 90 minutes of deliberation.Paola Sanchez, the founder of Are We Dating The Same Guy network and one of the 27 women named in D'Ambrosio's suit, has raised more than $37,000 from 1,700 people in an online fundraiser to cover the cost of legal expenses in the case.Sanchez said in the fundraiser's description that she planned to aggressively fight D'Ambrosio's suit and hoped to show that lawsuits meant to stifle free speech are unacceptable and some people will claim to have been defamed by true statements."It’s unfortunate that the media picked up the story days after it was simply filed," Sanchez said. "Anyone is allowed to sue anyone in this country for any reason should they so choose, but that doesn’t mean they have any chance of winning. I’m confident that we’ll prevail in this."The article Man Who Sued Women Over Facebook Comments Sentenced For Tax Fraud appeared first on Des Plaines, IL Patch.
Welcome to Billionaire Club Co LLC, your gateway to a brand-new social media experience! Sign up today and dive into over 10,000 fresh daily articles and videos curated just for your enjoyment. Enjoy the ad free experience, unlimited content interactions, and get that coveted blue check verification—all for just $1 a month!
Account Frozen
Your account is frozen. You can still view content but cannot interact with it.
Please go to your settings to update your account status.
Open Profile Settings