The owners of an internet floral business, Andrew Bassaner and his wife, Vicki Bunchuk of PA were convicted in February, 2018 for failing to pay employment taxes to the IRS as well as filing fraudulent personal and corporate tax returns.
Evidence presented at trial showed that from the years 2010 to 2012, the couple diverted funds from their business, Florist Concierge Inc. (FCI) by writing the funds off as business expenses on FIC’s corporate tax returns and not reporting it as income on their personal returns. Instead, they used the money to pay for luxury items including $17,000 a month rent for a home in Florida. From 2011 through 2014 the couple also falsely claimed that their employees were independent contractors which allowed them not to pay any employment taxes on their wages.
The couple will be sentenced in District Court on June 27th and could face a maximum sentence of five years in prison for each employment tax count, three years for each count of filing a fraudulent tax return as well as supervised release, restitution and monetary penalties.