Haas sentenced to two years in federal prison

By Bob Pockrass
Tuesday, November 06, 2007

Haas CNC Racing team owner Gene Haas was sentenced today to two years in federal prison after pleading guilty to one count of tax fraud in August.

U.S. District Court Judge Christina A. Snyder issued the sentence Monday in accordance with guidelines set in the previously agreed to plea bargain in federal court in Los Angeles. Haas will begin serving his prison term Jan. 14, according to a news release from the U.S. Department of Justice.

Haas, who was arrested in June 2006 after a lengthy investigation, agreed to pay $34.2 million in back taxes for the years 2000 and 2001, as well as a $5-million fine. With statutory penalties and interest on the back taxes, Haas has paid more than $70 million to the government to resolve his tax issues for 2000 and 2001.

"Mr. Haas has now paid the government more than twice the amount of taxes he attempted to avoid paying," said U.S. Attorney Thomas P. O'Brien in a statement. "This huge monetary penalty, as well as the two-year prison term, should reassure law-abiding citizens that tax evasion can and will be rooted out, and that there are significant ramifications."

Haas is the owner of Haas Automation, which is the largest dollar-volume machine tool builder in North America and the largest unit-volume builder of CNC machines in the world.

He is required to serve 85 percent of the sentence before being considered for release, so he will have to serve at least 20 months and 12 days in prison.

Officials with the race team, which has hired Jeremy Mayfield and Scott Riggs as its drivers for next season, have indicated that it does not expect an impact from Haas' pending imprisonment. The team is owned by Haas Automation. When the plea bargain was agreed to in August, Haas' attorneys released a statement indicating that Haas relied on the wrong people for financial and accounting advice and made a mistake in filing the erroneous returns.

Mentioned Drivers: Jeremy Mayfield

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