Press Release
Omaha Man Sentenced for Failure to Pay Withholding and F.I.C.A. Taxes
For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Nebraska
United States Attorney Joe Kelly announced that United States District Court Judge Robert F. Rossiter, Jr. sentenced Rolley D. Bennett, Jr., age 53, of Omaha, Nebraska, to a jail term of 12 months and 1 day for the willful failure to pay withholding and F.I.C.A taxes. There is no parole in the federal system. Once released from prison, Bennett will begin a 3-year term of supervised release. Bennett was ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $31,576.19 to the Internal Revenue Service.
Bennett, while the controller of Diesel Power Equipment Company, headquartered in Omaha, during the period of 2013 and 2014, failed to pay approximately $879,000 in payroll trust fund taxes to the Internal Revenue Service.
Diesel Power was a business that engaged in the distribution and repair of diesel engines, generators, pumps, parts and accessories, primarily to the mining, railroad, industrial equipment, and agricultural irrigation industries. Bennett’s failure to make the payroll trust fund tax payments in 2013 and 2014 resulted in Diesel Power ultimately going out of business. Bennett took steps to willfully conceal the nonpayment of Diesel Power employment taxes including creating cash flow reports, which reported the employment tax liabilities had been paid and creating journal entries in the company’s general ledger, which accrued the employment tax liabilities and their associated payments.
“As the individual who controlled the finances, Mr. Bennett was entrusted to collect and turn over all IRS withholding taxes,” said Karl Stiften, Special Agent in Charge of IRS Criminal Investigation. “Failure to remit those employment taxes resulted in the loss of tax revenue to the government and the possible loss of future social security or Medicare benefits for the employees.”
This case was investigated by the Criminal Investigation Division of the Internal Revenue Service.
Updated October 10, 2019
Topics
Financial Fraud
Tax
Component