A Kansas City business owner pleaded guilty in federal court on Friday, May 31, to a more than $544,000 tax fraud scheme.
William Patrick Vogt, 39, waived his right to a grand jury and pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Howard F. Sachs to a federal information that charges him with one count of false statements on a tax return.
Vogt owns and operates By The Blade, LLC, a lawn and landscape company in Parkville. By pleading guilty today, Vogt admitted that he underreported his business receipts on individual federal income tax returns for 2013-2015. This fraudulent criminal conduct resulted in a total federal tax loss of $468,587.
According to the plea agreement, Vogt deposited business receipts into his personal account in order to conceal his business income. Vogt also cashed By The Blade checks rather than deposit them into his business bank account. Vogt only reported as business income the receipts he chose to deposit into his business bank account. When the IRS audited him, Vogt made false statements to the revenue agent and others.
Vogt also understated his income on his Missouri state income tax returns for 2013–2015. The state tax losses for those years total $75,712, for a combined federal and state total tax loss of $544,299. Under the terms of the plea agreement, Vogt must pay restitution to the IRS of $468,587 and restitution to the state of Missouri of $75,712.
Under federal statutes, Vogt is subject to a sentence of up to three years in federal prison without parole. The maximum statutory sentence is prescribed by Congress and is provided here for informational purposes, as the sentencing of the defendant will be determined by the court based on the advisory sentencing guidelines and other statutory factors. A sentencing hearing will be scheduled after the completion of a presentence investigation by the United States Probation Office.
This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Kathleen D. Mahoney. It was investigated by IRS-Criminal Investigation.