United States Attorney Andrew M. Luger announced the sentence of DANIEL NOK MUSA, 56, to 51 months in prison for withholding taxes from his employees but failing to pay them to the Internal Revenue Service. The defendant was sentenced on April 22, 2015, before U.S. District Judge John R. Tunheim in Minneapolis, Minn.
According to his guilty plea and documents filed in court, between 2002 and Oct. 31, 2009, MUSA owned and operated home health care businesses known generally as “Life Care." His employees were personal care attendants. As the owner of this business, MUSA withheld income taxes and Social Security and Medicare taxes from his employees’ paychecks. However, beginning in 2002, MUSA did not pay the full amounts owed, and repeatedly paid little or nothing to the IRS. Beginning in March 2006 and for the 12 subsequent tax quarters, MUSA paid only a portion or none of the money withheld from his employees’ paychecks. During that period, MUSA deducted a total of $101,340 from his employees’ paychecks and kept $85,122 for his own personal use. In total, MUSA failed to pay $284,000 in employment taxes.
According to his guilty plea and documents filed in court, MUSA evaded paying taxes by, among other things, falsely telling revenue officers that he was shutting down his business, when in fact he only shifted his business into different shells. For example, in 2005, MUSA operated Life Care as a sole proprietorship called Life Care Home Health Care. When the IRS began trying to collect unpaid unemployment taxes, MUSA reconstituted Life Care as Life Care Home Health, LLC. In 2006, MUSA again changed the name of the entity to avoid taxes, this time calling it Life Care PCA, LLC. MUSA reconstituted the business between 2007 and 2013 under four additional names to avoid paying taxes.
According to his guilty plea and documents filed in court, MUSA spent the money he stole on an extravagant lifestyle. He bought multiple houses, luxury vehicles, and other extravagances. MUSA also spent a large amount of money at Mystic Lake Casino, losing between $1,000 and $2,000 per week. Between 2006 and 2011, MUSA was at Mystic Lake at least 462 times.
The investigation was conducted by the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigations Division.
This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Michael L. Cheever.
Defendant Information:
DANIEL NOK MUSA, 56
Shakopee, Minn.
Convicted:
• Failure to account for and pay over withheld taxes, 14 counts
Sentenced:
• 51 months in prison
• 3 years supervised release
• $284,000 restitution
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
