Virginia Beach man sentenced to 48 months for $2.5 million tax fraud | #phishing | #scams | #education | #technology | #infosec

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) — A Virginia Beach man has been sentenced to 48 months (4 years) after pleading guilty to defrauding the IRS out of more than $2.5 million in taxes.

According to the Department of Justice, court documents show that 53-year-old Richard Yanek hid assets, made false statements about his ability to pay, used a nominee company to conduct business and diverted huge sums of money to pay creditors instead of the IRS.

Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Raj Parekh said Yanek attempted to evade the payment of over $2.5 million in taxes and instead used his gains for personal expenses such as an oceanfront home, luxury travel, and yacht club dues

Yanek previously owned and operated a credit card processing business since at least 1995. Between 2013 and 2018, court documents say he withheld employment taxes from his employees, but failed to consistently pay more than a million dollars of those withholdings to the IRS. He also provided false employment tax forms to his employees.

Officials say he has not filed a personal income tax return or paid personal income taxes since 2010, despite earning and spending millions of dollars on the mortgage for his oceanfront home, personal credit cards, private school tuition, and golf and yacht club dues.

He has also made false statements to the IRS and law enforcement when asked why he has not filed.