WILLIAMSPORT — This is an official press release from the U.S. Department of Justice (USAO - Pennsylvania, Middle), published as received.
WILLIAMSPORT- The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that Devon T. Buck, age 34, of Cogan Station, Pennsylvania, was sentenced on November 1, 2022, by U.S. District Court Chief Judge Matthew W. Brann to two years of probation and a $3,000 fine for attempting to evade income taxes. Chief Judge Brann also ordered Buck to pay restitution in the amount of $203,324 to the IRS.
According to United States Attorney Gerard M. Karam, Buck operated a landscaping business called DCL Landscaping and for the calendar years 2015 through 2019, Buck attempted to evade $203,324 in federal income taxes. Buck prepared and delivered business invoices to DCL customers requesting that they make checks for landscaping services payable to Buck personally, instead of DCL, Buck asked customers to not place the DCL name on their checks, and he provided DCL invoices to customers which included an instruction to make their payments payable to Buck individually. From 2015 through 2019, Buck diverted approximately $677,877 of DCL receipts by cashing customer checks rather than depositing them into a business bank account, and he deposited only $240,749 of customer payments into the DCL business bank account during that period. He provided fraudulent business summaries to his tax return preparer for use in preparing IRS Form 1040 income tax returns and Schedule C statements of business receipts and expenses, which falsely underreported DCL gross receipts and evaded the payment of federal income taxes.
The case was investigated by the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney George J. Rocktashel prosecuted the case.
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