PHOENIX - This week, U.S. District Judge David G. Campbell sentenced William “Larry" Dorsey, 56, of Chandler, Ariz., to 36 months in prison and three years of supervised release. The Court also ordered Dorsey to pay $7.3 million in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service. Dorsey had previously pleaded guilty to tax evasion.
Dorsey owned and operated several professional employment organizations, including Pinnacle Employee Group, Inc. (PEG) and Pinnacle Planning Group, Inc. (PPG), which contracted with small business owners to provide payroll services. Dorsey, through PEG and PPG, collected federal employment taxes from his clients but, instead of paying the taxes over to the IRS as he contracted to do, kept a significant portion of the taxes for his own personal use and to fund other business ventures. To conceal his theft, Dorsey filed false employment tax returns with the IRS, which underreported the taxes due from PEG and PPG. From 2011 through 2014, Dorsey underreported and underpaid approximately $7.3 million in federal employment taxes due and owing by PEG and PPG.
The investigation in this case was conducted by Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation. The prosecution was handled by Bridget Minder and Peter Sexton, Assistant United States Attorneys, District of Arizona, Phoenix.
CASE NUMBER: CR-18-00128-DGC-PHX
RELEASE NUMBER: 2018-058_Dorsey
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
