Post by Banana Cat on Jul 16, 2010 19:52:10 GMT -5
www.mywesttexas.com/top_stories/article_f9b0f2b4-4d78-590a-9b4d-948f49d35fde.html
Former Roughnecks owner gets five years in tax case
Jul 16, 2010.
Bob Campbell / Midland Reporter-Telegram
The former part-owner of the Odessa Roughnecks and three other Indoor Football League teams was sentenced to five years in prison Thursday and ordered to pay $27 million in restitution for evading taxes through a "pyramiding" scheme.
Joe Albert Smith had pleaded guilty last February and was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Robert Junell.
Internal Revenue Service Special Agent Michael Lemoine, of San Antonio, said Smith's pyramid scheme involved the creation of a succession of employment leasing companies
Lemoine said Smith "willfully attempted to evade and defeat the payment of a large portion of the withheld payroll taxes due and owing the IRS by Pro-Emp Solutions and Gaddis Employment Solutions."
"When the liabilities became large from 1998-2002, he caused those businesses to cease operations, only to reopen them almost immediately under different names with a relative as the purported operator, making it appear Pro-Emp and Gaddis were no longer operational and unable to pay taxes," Lemoine said.
Represented by Midland attorney Michael Cropper, Smith acknowledged in his plea agreement that he also "willfully concealed my ownership interest" in AES Computer Services, PEO Inc., Allegiance Solutions and Onesource Employer Solutions.
IFL Commissioner Tommy Benizio, of Richmond, Va., said in February that he sold the Roughnecks in 2008 to Smith and his son Brandon, who also owned the El Paso Generals and Abilene RoughRiders and held a 50 percent interest in the San Angelo Stampede Express.
Benizio said the Smiths folded the Generals in 2009 and sold their other franchises to Jay and Dale Morris, of Odessa, Abilene investors led by Scott Anderson and their San Angelo partner, Darlene Jones.
Lemoine said the IRS agreed not to pursue criminal charges against Brandon Alexander Smith but stipulated that it could file a civil lawsuit against him.
The case was investigated by IRS Special Agent James Lund, of El Paso, and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney General John Klassen, of Midland.
Jul 16, 2010.
Bob Campbell / Midland Reporter-Telegram
The former part-owner of the Odessa Roughnecks and three other Indoor Football League teams was sentenced to five years in prison Thursday and ordered to pay $27 million in restitution for evading taxes through a "pyramiding" scheme.
Joe Albert Smith had pleaded guilty last February and was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Robert Junell.
Internal Revenue Service Special Agent Michael Lemoine, of San Antonio, said Smith's pyramid scheme involved the creation of a succession of employment leasing companies
Lemoine said Smith "willfully attempted to evade and defeat the payment of a large portion of the withheld payroll taxes due and owing the IRS by Pro-Emp Solutions and Gaddis Employment Solutions."
"When the liabilities became large from 1998-2002, he caused those businesses to cease operations, only to reopen them almost immediately under different names with a relative as the purported operator, making it appear Pro-Emp and Gaddis were no longer operational and unable to pay taxes," Lemoine said.
Represented by Midland attorney Michael Cropper, Smith acknowledged in his plea agreement that he also "willfully concealed my ownership interest" in AES Computer Services, PEO Inc., Allegiance Solutions and Onesource Employer Solutions.
IFL Commissioner Tommy Benizio, of Richmond, Va., said in February that he sold the Roughnecks in 2008 to Smith and his son Brandon, who also owned the El Paso Generals and Abilene RoughRiders and held a 50 percent interest in the San Angelo Stampede Express.
Benizio said the Smiths folded the Generals in 2009 and sold their other franchises to Jay and Dale Morris, of Odessa, Abilene investors led by Scott Anderson and their San Angelo partner, Darlene Jones.
Lemoine said the IRS agreed not to pursue criminal charges against Brandon Alexander Smith but stipulated that it could file a civil lawsuit against him.
The case was investigated by IRS Special Agent James Lund, of El Paso, and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney General John Klassen, of Midland.