An Aurora businessman who ran both a Denver liquor store and a drain-contracting outfit has admitted he lied to the IRS, in a tax case prosecutors say left about $2.2 million in federal taxes unpaid. Manuel Rocha pleaded guilty this week to a federal charge of filing a false personal tax return and is scheduled to be sentenced on Aug. 25.
According to federal prosecutors, court documents show Rocha spent years masking the true earnings of his businesses by feeding bad information into his tax returns. From 2015 through 2022, he provided false records to his tax preparers and diverted some business receipts into additional bank accounts to keep that income off the books, according to the U.S. Department of Justice…