Phoenix Asphalt Paver Sentenced to Prison for Tax Evasion

WASHINGTON, Jan. 12 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- John D. Stacey of Mesa, Ariz., was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Neil V. Wake to 77 months in prison and ordered to pay $1.5 million dollars in restitution on Jan. 7, 2010, the Justice Department and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced today.

Following a jury trial in June 2009, Stacey was convicted on charges of income tax evasion, corrupt interference with the due administration of the IRS, and multiple counts of fraudulent use of a social security number.  According to the evidence presented at trial, Stacey operated a sole proprietorship asphalt paving company that did business under various names, including A to Z Paving, Triple A Paving, Texas Paving, Pave Your Way Construction and A to Z Paving Engineering, among others. Stacey earned gross income in excess of $4 million from his business during the years 2000 to 2003, but he has never filed an individual income tax return with the IRS.

According to the evidence presented at trial, since at least February 2002, Stacey knew that he owed taxes, penalties and interest for tax years 1995, 1996 and 1997. Stacey has made no payments to the IRS towards this tax debt. In addition to not paying his outstanding tax debt, Stacey took numerous steps to frustrate the IRS's efforts to both investigate the case and collect tax that he owed. For example, Stacey made multiple false statements to IRS agents, operated his business to prevent creating business records, made a number of luxury purchases rather than paying his outstanding tax debt and provided paving customers and financial institutions with multiple false social security numbers to prevent the IRS from receiving accurate information about his income, assets and financial transactions.      

John A. DiCicco, Acting Assistant Attorney General of the Justice Department's Tax Division, commended the IRS Criminal Investigation Division agents who investigated the case, as well as Tax Division trial attorneys Monica Edelstein and Ellen Quattrucci who prosecuted the case.

SOURCE U.S. Department of Justice

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