A Michigan asphalt company must pay a $6.5 million fine for conspiring with other asphalt businesses over four years to rig bids for paving jobs across the state.
Pontiac-based Asphalt Specialists LLC pleaded guilty on Jan. 30 for taking part in the conspiracy with Al's Asphalt Paving Company Inc. from March 2013 through November 2018 and F. Allied Construction Company Inc. from July 2017 through May 2021, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) said on Thursday.
The co-conspirators coordinated each other's bid prices so that the agreed-upon losing company would submit non-competitive bids to give customers the false impression of competition when, in fact, the co-conspirators had already decided among themselves who would win the contracts.
All three companies were charged with conspiracy as part of an ongoing federal antitrust investigation into bid rigging and other anticompetitive conduct in the asphalt paving services industry.
Al's Asphalt pleaded guilty and was sentenced to pay a fine of $795,661.81 on July 31. Allied also pleaded guilty and is awaiting sentencing.
Six individuals also have been charged as part of the investigation, according to the DOJ.
Tax Return Preparer Shuttered For Overstating Customer’s Refunds
A Texas tax preparer has been shut down for allegedly inflating customers’ tax refunds for two years.
The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas issued a permanent injunction on Wednesday that has barred Texas tax return preparer Ruben Gonzalez and anyone acting with him or at his direction from preparing federal tax returns for others.
According to the injunction, Gonzalez is banned from using his business called "Sin Barreras Income Tax" to prepare returns for others because he or those working for him allegedly significantly overstated customers' tax refunds in a substantial number of returns prepared at the business from 2021 to 2023.
They did this by fabricating or inflating business losses, recording charitable donation deductions that never happened and falsely claiming energy credits and coronavirus family sick leave credits to which the customers were not entitled.
By repeatedly overstating customers' tax refunds, the federal complaint alleged that Gonzalez caused the U.S. to lose more than $20 million in tax revenue during the two years that he committed the fraud.
Gonzalez must send notice of the injunction to each person for whom he or his preparers put together federal tax returns or amended tax returns or claims for refunds since the beginning of 2021.
The permanent injunction also required Gonzalez to post a copy of the injunction at all locations where he conducted business and post a statement on all social media accounts and websites that he is barred from preparing tax returns.
Medical Equipment Seller Pleads Guilty To Committing $2.4 Million In Tax Evasion
A Florida man pleaded guilty today to allegedly evading nearly $2.4 million in taxes on income he earned from his business.
According to court documents and statements made in court, Roger Whitman, 76, made and sold medical equipment, producing millions of dollars in gross receipts from the sale of such equipment. between 2002 and 2018.
Whitman has not filed an individual income tax return or made any tax payments since 2000, the DOJ said on Tuesday.
In 2012, the IRS assessed nearly $800,0000 in taxes against Whitman for tax years 2002 through 2009. In response, Whitman formed a trust with his girlfriend serving as the trustee to conceal his income and assets.
Whitman directed his girlfriend to open two bank accounts in the trust's name, over which Whitman's girlfriend had sole signatory authority.
Whitman deposited his income from the business into the trust's bank accounts and used these funds to pay personal expenses.
He also formed a new entity to operate his business around July 2019 to further thwart IRS collection efforts, according to the DOJ.
Whitman, who is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 13, faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison, as well as supervised release and monetary penalties.
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