BOSTON (WHDH) - The owner of a popular diner in East Boston is facing 39 counts of failing to pay taxes and filing false returns.
“You get a great meal, are out in 20 minutes, good price for around here. Its great,” said Liam Stapleton, a customer of Donna’s Diner in Orient Heights.
Despite the praise, some customers were left with a bad taste in their mouths after learning owner Donna Marquado allegedly charged customers a meal tax and pocketed the money.
“That wasn’t a very smart thing to do because she should be profitable enough without trying to scam the IRS,” Arthur Penta said, a regular customer of the diner.
Authorities say Marquado failed to report more than $850,000 in sales and didn’t pay $60,000 in taxes.
Marquado’s husband says their accountant is to blame.
“We have a great relationship with our customers and to even think that we’d do something like this is totally crazy, absolutely crazy. Doesn’t make any sense,” Richard Marquado said.
Marquado’s husband says his wife took over the restaurant after her father died and that she didn’t know all of the ins-and-outs of bookkeeping. He says they’ve since fired their accountant and that they hope to rectify the situation.
“It was a miscalculation on my wife’s part and our accountant. Whatever the figure is – its fine, we’ll pay it,” Richard said.
In the meantime, the family – with a long tradition of feeding East Boston – is making an appeal to its customers.
“Hopefully they’ll stand by us,” Richard said.
Marquado was in court Wednesday for an arraignment, but the judge had to recuse himself because he was related. Her arraignment was rescheduled for April.
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