U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania issued the following announcement on Aug. 21.
United States Attorney William M. McSwain announced that Andrew Bunchuk a/k/a/ Andrew Bassaner, 45, and Vicki Bunchuk, 45, both of Southampton, Pennsylvania, were sentenced to 42 months’ and 6 months’ imprisonment, respectively, for tax fraud. The defendants were tried together and were convicted in February 2018; Andrew Bunchuk was convicted of six counts of aiding and assisting in the preparation of false income tax returns, and Vicki Bunchuk was convicted of six counts of filing false income tax returns. Both defendants were convicted of failing to collect, account for, and pay over taxes for employees.
According to the evidence introduced at trial, Bassaner and Bunchuk were the owners and operators of Florist Concierge Corporation, a company incorporated in Pennsylvania but located in Orlando, Florida. The company was a telephone call center and internet service that accepted floral arrangement orders from customers throughout the United States. The defendants fraudulently deducted more than $200,000 in personal expenses on their income taxes, claiming they were legitimate business expenses. The expenses included luxury cars, a down payment on a multimillion-dollar house, tickets to sporting events, and home repairs.
In addition, the evidence at trial showed that the defendants failed to collect and pay over employment taxes, Federal Insurance Contribution Act taxes, and federal unemployment taxes on behalf of employees who worked for Florist Concierge for fourteen consecutive quarters from 2001 through 2014. The defendants mischaracterized employees as contractors in an attempt to avoid collecting and paying over employment taxes.
“Our tax collection system relies on citizens playing by the rules. And the system only works if fraudsters like these defendants pay the price for lying and cheating the government out of paying their fair share of taxes,” said U.S. Attorney McSwain. “These defendants have earned their time behind bars to think long and hard about what they did.”
"The defendants’ actions resulted in the loss of tax revenue to the United States government and the loss of future social security and Medicare benefits for their employees," said IRS Criminal Investigation Special Agent in Charge Guy Ficco. “Let this serve as a strong reminder that the payment of individual and business taxes is an obligation, not a choice.”
Original source can be found here.