Businessman sent to prison for $53 million tax scheme

NEW YORK — A Kentucky businessman, was sentenced today to 12 years in prison and over $108 million in restitution for committing various tax crimes that caused more than $50 million in losses to the Internal Revenue Service, and a massive fraud that involved the bribery of bank officials, the fraudulent purchase of an insurance company, and the defrauding of insurance regulators and an investment bank.

The sentence follows an investigation by Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE), Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), the New York State Department of Financial Services and the Office of Inspector General of the FDIC. 

William Anthony Huff, 53, was a businessman who controlled numerous entities located throughout the United States.  Huff controlled the companies and their finances, using them to orchestrate a $53 million fraud on the IRS and other schemes, spanning four states, involving tax violations, bank bribery, fraud on bank regulators, and the fraudulent purchase of an insurance company.  As part of his crimes, Huff concealed his control of the Huff-Controlled Entities by installing other individuals to oversee the companies’ day-to-day functions and to serve as the companies’ titular owners, directors, or officers.  Huff also maintained a corrupt relationship with Park Avenue Bank and its executives, Charles J. Antonucci, Sr., the president and chief executive officer, and Matthew L. Morris, the senior vice president. 

From 2008 to 2010, Huff controlled O2HR, a professional employer organization (“PEO”) located in Tampa, Florida.  Like other PEOs, O2HR was paid to manage the payroll, tax, and workers’ compensation insurance obligations of its client companies.  However, instead of paying $53 million in taxes that O2HR’s clients owed the IRS, and instead of paying $5 million to Providence Property and Casualty Insurance Company (“Providence P&C”) – an Oklahoma-based insurance company – for workers’ compensation coverage expenses for O2HR clients, Huff stole the money that his client companies had paid O2HR for those purposes.  Among other things, Huff diverted millions of dollars from O2HR to fund his investments in unrelated business ventures, and to pay his family members’ personal expenses.  The expenses included mortgages on Huff’s homes, rent payments for his children’s apartments, staff and equipment for Huff’s farm, designer clothing, jewelry, and luxury cars.

In addition to the prison sentence, Huff, was sentenced to three years of supervised release, and ordered to forfeit $10.8 million to the United States and pay a total of more than $108 million in restitution to victims of his crimes, including, among others, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (“FDIC”) and the IRS.