The former owner of a company that bought and sold trucking companies was sentenced to five years, 10 months in prison and ordered to pay $270,000 in restitution Wednesday following a 2008 guilty plea to wire fraud and tax evasion charges, the Justice Department announced last month.
St. Charles, Illinois, resident Christopher Jansen, 64, admitted to establishing a Delaware-based shell company in 2002 to use as collateral for purchasing DFC Transportation, a trucking company based in Huntley, Illinois.
Jansen was the owner of Baytree Investors Inc., a now defunct corporation engaged in acquiring trucking companies, says the DOJ.
Jansen also ordered DFC employees to transfer money to the fake Delaware-based company, funds he then gave to himself and others for personal use without telling DFC shareholders or managers. In March 2002, Jansen ordered $250,000 be wired to an account in Utah, which he then gave to himself.
Jansen did not pay taxes on the money, nor did he file tax paperwork for Baytree and his Delaware-based shell company. Jansen admitted he did not have a bank account in his name, as to conceal his income from the IRS. Jansen said he used a bank account in the name of a dissolved corporation, Talcott Financial, to receive his pay. He also used the account for personal use.