OAKLAND — A federal judge sentenced a Berkeley resident to one year in federal prison Tuesday for committing employment tax crimes, authorities said.
U.S. District Judge Jeffrey S. White handed the sentence down to Larry Kudsk following his guilty plea in August to one count of willfully failing to pay over employment taxes, U.S. Attorney Ismail Ramsey of the Northern District of California said in a statement. A federal grand jury indicted Kudsk in February 2022.
REALTED: Child labor, mayhem, lewd comments to teen girls alleged at Oakland Popeyes
According to Ramsey and court records, Kudsk operated two construction businesses — Kudsk Construction Inc., and M. Gutierrez Inc. — that served as general contractors or subcontractors on various construction projects, some of them for the government.
Kudsk was responsible for filing quarterly employment tax returns on both businesses, Ramsey said, as well as collecting and paying to the IRS employment taxes withheld from employees’ wages.
According to Ramsey, Kudsk did not file timely employment tax returns or pay over tax withholdings to the IRS for both companies. Ramsey said Kudsk was delinquent on the taxes in all four quarters of 2014 and the last three quarters of 2015 for M. Gutierrez Inc. He was delinquent all four quarters of 2016 for Kudsk Construction Inc., Ramsey said.
Ramsey said that Kudsk’s actions caused the IRS to lose more than $250,000.
Kudsk is expected to surrender to authorities on Aug. 15.