US Attorney: Man Sentenced For Withholding Employees' Taxes For His Benefit

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- A 56-year-old business owner has been sentenced to 51 months – over 4 years – in prison for withholding taxes from his employees for his own benefit, the U.S. Attorney's Office announced Wednesday.

Daniel Nok Musa was sentenced on April 22, 2015 before U.S. District Judge John Tunheim in Minneapolis.

According to his guilty plea and court documents, Musa owned and operated a home health care business known as "Life Care" between 2002 and Oct. 31, 2009. Authorities say Musa withheld income taxes, Social Security and Medicare taxes from his employees' paychecks.

Beginning in 2002, he did not pay the full amounts owed and repeatedly paid little or nothing to the IRS. In total, Musa failed to pay $284,000 in employment taxes.

Musa admitted to evading paying taxes by falsely telling revenue officers that he was shutting down his business. He would, however, just shift his business into different shells.

Musa admitted to spending the money he stole on an extravagant lifestyle, including multiple houses, luxury vehicles and other expensive items. He gambled constantly at Mystic Lake Casino, losing between $1,000 and $2,000 per week.

The investigation was conducted by the IRS Criminal Investigations Division.