Source: Office of United States Attorneys
SAN ANTONIO – A federal grand jury in San Antonio returned an indictment charging a Carrizo Springs man with seven counts of failure to account for and pay over withholding taxes.
According to court documents, Mark Douglass Plocek, 60, handled the day-to-day operations, including payroll, as an owner, operator and vice president of Production Lease Operating Services Oil & Gas Services LP (PLOS). The indictment alleges that, from the second quarter of 2016 through the third quarter of 2019, Plocek used PLOS to make hundreds of thousands of dollars for his personal benefit while, at the same time, failing to truthfully account for and pay over to the IRS payroll tax withheld from PLOS’s employees’ paychecks. Plocek allegedly spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on discretionary living expenditures including but not limited to gambling, purchasing real estate and investing in an unrelated restaurant business.
Plocek made his initial court appearance today before U.S. Magistrate Judge Richard B. Farrer of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas. If convicted, he faces up to five years in prison for each count. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
U.S. Attorney Jaime Esparza for the Western District of Texas made the announcement.
IRS Criminal Investigation is investigating the case.
Assistant U.S. Attorney William Harris is prosecuting the case.
An indictment is merely an allegation and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
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