According to the New York Daily News, Helmer Toro, founder of H & H Bagels, plead guilty of second degree larceny today for pocketing $369,000 in payroll taxes:
The bagel big admitted he withheld $337,000 from his workers’ paychecks between 2003 and 2009, and simply kept the money.
Toro also admitted taking the remainder of the money by registering some 89 payroll names under a succession of new shell companies so that he could pay their unemployment insurance taxes under the lowest rate, reserved for brand new businesses.
As part of the restitution deal, he has pledged as collateral the $500,000 mortgage on his main bakery plant at 45th Street and 12th Avenue — where he has boasted of making 80,000 bagels a day.