A Shelby Township resident will spend 14 months in prison for tax evasion and pay restitution and a $20,000 fine, U.S. Attorney Matthew Schneider announced today.
Joining Schneider in the announcement was Manny Muriel, Special Agent in Charge of the Detroit Office of the Internal Revenue Service ‐ Criminal Investigation.
The defendant, Mersed Bebanic, 35, owned and operated three businesses, including Century Trucking Inc, Century Trucking Services LLC, and Century Innovations. Bebanic was required to file personal income tax returns for tax years 2011 through 2014 and had a duty to report an accurate net profit of his business on Form 1120S of his U.S. Income Tax Return for S Corporation and to pay any income tax due. Instead, in April 2014, Bebanic prepared and filed a Form 1040 Individual Income Tax Return with the IRS for the 2013 tax year and underreported his total income. Bebanic reported his taxable 2013 income as $34,073.00 and the total taxes on his income as $10,790.00 when Bebanic knew his total income for 2013 was substantially higher. As a result, the tax due and owing on his income for 2013 was also substantially higher, totaling $281,368.00.
Factoring in penalties, the loss associated with Bebanic’s tax evasion scheme from 2011 through 2014 totaled $1,224,461. Bebanic agreed to pay the total amount of his restitution by applying funds seized from his home during the execution of a search warrant in August 2016.
Bebanic filed a false 2013 individual income tax return knowing that the total income and tax due reported on his 2013 return were false. Bebanic admitted in court he met with his accountant in April of 2014 and provided information that overstated his business expenses, therefore, understating his profit. The inaccurate profit transferred to his personal income tax return. Despite knowing the information was not accurate, Bebanic signed and caused a false return.
Manny Muriel, Special Agent in Charge of the Detroit’s IRS Criminal Investigation, stated, “Mr. Bebanic deliberately underreported business income to evade a true assessment of tax due and owed to the U.S. Treasury; however, Mr. Bebanic’s actions could not escape the attention of IRS-CI and he’ll no longer be able to cheat the American taxpayers."
The case was investigated by agents of the Internal Revenue Service - Criminal Investigation.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
