New York Attorney General Letitia James said Feb. 10 that her office recovered more than $4.7 million from the owners of two New York City truck rental companies and their accountant for what she described as a decade-long sales tax evasion scheme.
The settlement covers Able Rentals, Inc. and Abarn Equipment Corp., along with accountant Howard Zapken, according to the Office of the Attorney General. An investigation by the office found that the companies’ owners, Myron and Martin Schulman, pocketed sales taxes they collected from customers on more than $15 million in revenue from 2014 through 2024 by vastly underreporting their taxable sales to the state, the office said.
Zapken, as founder of the accounting firm Zapken & Loeb, helped the two businesses and their owners operate the scheme, which allowed them to avoid paying more than $1.3 million in sales tax, according to the Attorney General’s office. As a result of the investigation, the Schulmans will pay more than $3.9 million and Zapken has paid more than $825,000, the office said.
“Businesses that cheat on their taxes are depriving our state of the funding that provides health care, education, and other critical services to New Yorkers,” James said in a statement. “Abarn and Able violated both the law and the trust of their customers who expected the taxes they paid to benefit the public.”
The office said the case sends a message to businesses and their accountants that it will not tolerate tax evasion schemes. The terms are detailed in a settlement agreement posted by the Attorney General’s office.
