Date: March 28, 2022 Contact: newsroom@ci.irs.gov United States Attorney Jan Sharp announced that Janis Strautkalns, of Lincoln, Nebraska, was sentenced today in Lincoln by United States District Judge John M. Gerrard for failing to pay withholding and payroll taxes. Strautkalns was sentenced to 6 months in custody with an additional 6 months of home confinement. He will also serve 3 years on supervised release. There is no parole in the federal system. The court also ordered Strautkalns to pay a total of $90,586.00 in restitution, $10,000.00 of which was paid prior to sentencing. Strautkalns owned and operated Security and Protection Services, Inc., d/b/a Lincoln Guards Security Company, with its principal place of business in Lincoln. Strautkalns was the president, owner and operator of the security company, and exercised control over the business affairs, including authorizing business expenses, authorizing payment of employee paychecks, signing of employee paychecks, approval of payments made by the corporation, and approval of payment of "payroll taxes" to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Strautkalns' security firm withheld taxes from its employees' paychecks, including federal income taxes, Medicare, and Social Security taxes. These taxes are commonly referred to as "payroll taxes." Strautkalns' security company was required to timely file his business returns and make deposits of those "payroll taxes" to the IRS on a periodic basis. During the calendar years 2016 – 2018, Strautkalns' company withheld payroll tax payments from its employees' paychecks; however, beginning in the third quarter of 2016, and continuing through the fourth quarter of 2018, Strautkalns failed to pay those payroll taxes to the IRS. "When a business owner collects and then fails to pay over the hard-earned money of their employees, as in the case of Mr. Strautkalns, he is essentially stealing from the future retirement benefits of his employees," said Assistant Special Agent in Charge Charles Miller, IRS Criminal Investigation. "Unpaid employment taxes are a substantial problem, and IRS CI will continue to pursue those employers that intend to line their own pockets by robbing from those that work for them." This case was investigated by the Internal Revenue Service.
