Washington State Woman Sentenced for Failing to Pay Employment Taxes

On December 18, 2009, in Seattle, Wash., Michelle L. Bielaski, of Bellevue, Washington, was sentenced to 15 months in prison, two years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $2,478,002 in restitution.  Bielaski pleaded guilty in June 2009, admitting that as secretary and treasurer of Falcon Construction, Inc., she failed to send to the Internal Revenue Service taxes that the company withheld from employee paychecks.  In her plea agreement, Bielaski admitted that the construction company had the ability to pay the withheld taxes over the years and in fact had paid salaries totaling approximately $3.9 million from 1998 to 2007.