Salinas Valley Engineering used to be a successful company dealing in agricultural equipment. Curtis Parry was the sole stockholder from 1977 to 2003. And then trouble came.
Mr. Parry wanted to increase his income without paying taxes. So beginning in 1999 (and running through 2002) he diverted business income into his personal account. He told his bookkeeper that they were expense reimbursements (but they weren’t). He wired money to Nigeria; I guess that’s a new take on the Nigerian email fraud schemes. He used the money for such things as a trip to Leggoland and a tae bo class. I could think of better things to spend money on if I were going to risk tax evasion, but I digress.
Unfortunately for Mr. Parry, he did the one thing that’s guaranteed to cause trouble. He didn’t remit his trust fund taxes to the federal government. If you want the IRS to investigate, just make sure you don’t remit those and you’ll soon get your wish. The IRS then discovered the tax fraud, and Mr. Parry’s troubles ballooned.
Mr. Parry pleaded guilty back in February to tax evasion and filing false corporate tax returns. He was sentenced last week to 18 months at ClubFed and must also make restitution of $221,641.