Bucks County Construction Business Owner Sentenced to 2 ½ Years for $1.3 Million Tax Fraud Scheme

PHILADELPHIA – United States Attorney Jennifer Arbittier Williams announced that Samuel Bullock, 72, of Langhorne, PA, was sentenced to two and a half years in prison, one year of supervised release, and ordered to pay $3,501,261 restitution by United States District Court Judge Michael M. Baylson for his orchestration of a tax fraud scheme to avoid paying nearly $1.3 million in federal income taxes, and millions more in interest and penalties.

In February 2022, the defendant pleaded guilty to one count of aiding and assisting in the filing of a false federal tax return, and one count of willful failure to file a federal tax return, all relating to his efforts to avoid paying taxes on income from his construction business. In 2009, after the defendant had repeatedly failed to file his federal income tax returns, the Internal Revenue Service secured liens for more than $1.9 million that the defendant owed in taxes, interest and penalties. The defendant responded by taking steps to avoid collection by arranging to have his business income paid over to a sole proprietorship that he had set up in the name of his spouse, including providing his clients with new Forms W-9 with his spouse’s Social Security number and opening a new business checking account in his spouse’s name as the alleged sole proprietor. The defendant then reported his own income on the tax return of his spouse, using the filing status “Married filing separately.” Although he was aware that he had earned income and was obliged to file a federal income tax return, Bullock failed to do so.

“Samuel Bullock’s scheme to enrich himself and avoid paying his fair share of income taxes victimized honest American taxpayers and business owners who do pay their tax obligations,” U.S. Attorney Williams said. “By ignoring the IRS and its legitimate demands for information from him, the defendant created a self-inflicted wound: compounding his already-significant tax debt. This type of fraud will be aggressively investigated and prosecuted by this Office.”

“Every American who pays his or her taxes can breathe easy knowing that tax cheats, like Mr. Bullock, are being held accountable,” said IRS Criminal Investigation Special Agent in Charge Yury Kruty. “IRS-CI has several investigative tools at its disposal to detect schemes like this. Those who think that they can outsmart the IRS should think again.”

The case was investigated by Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Elizabeth Abrams.