A Parkville business owner was sentenced in federal court on Friday for a more than $544,000 tax fraud scheme. William Patrick Vogt, 40, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Howard F. Sachs to 15 months in federal prison without parole.
On May 29, 2019, Vogt pleaded guilty to one count of false statements on a tax return. Under the terms of his plea agreement, Vogt must pay restitution to the IRS of $466,587 and restitution to the state of Missouri of $75,712, which he paid on Friday.
Vogt owns and operates By The Blade, LLC, a lawn and landscape company in Parkville.
Vogt admitted that he underreported his business income on individual federal income tax returns for 2013-2015 by hundreds of thousands of dollars each year, for a total of more than $1.4 million of diverted income. This fraudulent criminal conduct resulted in a total federal tax loss of $466,587, not including interest and penalties.
Vogt deposited business receipts into his personal account in order to conceal his business income. Vogt also cashed By The Blade checks rather than deposit them into his business bank account. Vogt only reported as business income the receipts he chose to deposit into his business bank account.
When the IRS audited him, Vogt made false statements to the revenue agent and others.
Vogt also understated his income on his Missouri state income tax returns for 2013 – 2015. The state tax losses for those years total $75,712, not including interest and penalties, for a combined federal and state total tax loss of $544,299.
This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Kathleen D. Mahoney. It was investigated by IRS-Criminal Investigation.