VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Author's note: The video above is on file from January 24, 2020.
A businessman in Virginia Beach was sentenced to four years in prison on Sept. 27 for defrauding the Internal Revenue Service of more than $2.5 million in taxes.
Richard Yanek, 53, has been the owner of a credit card processing business since 1995.
From 2013 through 2018, he withheld employee taxes from his employees and failed to pay those withholdings. He also gave his employees false employment tax forms, hid assets, made false statements, used a nominee company for business and gave large amounts of money to creditors instead.
“Yanek betrayed his employees’ trust and violated U.S. tax laws for personal financial gain,” said Darrell J. Waldon, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the IRS-Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) Washington, D.C. Field Office.
Yanek has also failed to file and pay personal income taxes since 2010, despite having them prepared by his accountant from 2011 through 2016.
“He deliberately chose not to pay over employment taxes he withheld from his employees, instead opting to use those monies to fund a life of opulence. For years, he spent millions of dollars on luxury items. Today, justice was served,” Waldon said.
Yanek went on to spend his money on his home at the Oceanfront, credit cards, private school tuition and memberships to his golf and yacht clubs.
“The sentence imposed in this case should send a clear message of deterrence to others who may be considering unlawfully enriching themselves at the expense of the American taxpayer,” said Raj Parekh, the Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.