Owner of Canton company that manufactures American flags sentenced to 2 years in prison for failing [View all]

Owner of Canton company that manufactures American flags sentenced to two years in prison for failing to pay $162,000 in taxes


The owner of a Canton company that manufactures American flags was sentenced to two years in prison for failing to pay more than $162,000 in payroll taxes.

Richard Spencer, 52, was ordered to pay $197,040 in restitution. He previously pleaded guilty to failure to account for, collect and pay over employment taxes.

U.S. Attorney Justin Herdman said: “This defendant did not paying over taxes he collected from his employees, and intentionally misclassified others to avoid taxes. This defendant benefitted from being able to say that his flags were made in America, but he failed to meet his obligations to his employees and the American taxpayer.”

“Richard Spencer did not have any problems with earning income from manufacturing the American flag, but he did have problems with paying employment taxes to the IRS that he withheld from his employees,” said William Cheung, Acting Special Agent in Charge, IRS Criminal Investigation, Cincinnati Field Office. “What is very disturbing about this case is that an IRS audit disclosed that Richard Spencer improperly treated employees as contractors and even after learning the results of the audit he continued to misclassify his employees and continued to fail to pay the employment taxes.”

Read more: https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndoh/pr/owner-canton-company-manufactures-american-flags-sentenced-two-years-prison-failing-pay