March 1, 2018

Two former Memphis staffing company owners were sentenced to prison for payroll tax fraud, announced the Justice Department’s Tax Division. Mark Stinson, who was convicted in December 2017 at trial of conspiring to defraud the United States, failing to pay over payroll taxes, filing false tax documents, theft of government funds, and aggravated identity theft, was sentenced to 75 months in prison. According to court documents and trial testimony, from 2005 through 2015, Mark and Jayton Stinson operated a temporary staffing company in Memphis that provided services to businesses in Tennessee and elsewhere. The staffing company’s standard contract with its customers provided that the staffing company was responsible for withholding employment tax from its employees’ wages and paying over the amounts withheld to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The Stinsons failed to pay over $2.8 million in withholdings and other employment taxes due to IRS, failed to timely file employment tax returns and filed false employment tax returns. DOJ