A former operator of a staffing firm in Covina, California, was sentenced on Monday to two years in prison for failing to pay payroll taxes, the US Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California reported. The former operator, Robinson Rin Yang, 54, was also ordered to pay nearly $2.8 million in restitution.

Yang pleaded guilty in December to one count of willful failure to pay over employment taxes.

Yang operated B&S Staffing from March 2016 to March 2020, according to the US attorney’s office. From mid-2017 until the end of 2019, B&S accrued large unpaid employment tax liabilities, failed to make timely employment tax deposits and repeatedly failed to timely file quarterly employment tax returns with the IRS, according to the office.

Additionally, B&S waited until February 2019 to file employment tax returns for the periods ending June 30, 2017, through Dec. 31, 2018, according to the office. After those returns were filed, B&S later fell into noncompliance with its reporting obligations and did not file again until September 2020.

According to the office, despite being aware of B&S’s tax situation, Yang willfully failed to pay the taxes due to the IRS, including income taxes and Social Security and Medicare taxes withheld from employee wages. Instead, Yang repeatedly used his control over B&S to direct payments from the corporate account for personal benefit.

In total, B&S accrued nearly $2.8 million in unpaid employment taxes, according to the office.

Yang also worked to frustrate IRS collection actions against him, according to the office. Yang didn’t pay himself a salary; instead, he caused weekly checks to be issued from B&S’s corporate bank account to a business named Advanced Business Konsulting. Those checks were deposited into an account that he controlled. In addition, Yang used B&S funds for the down payment and monthly mortgage payments on the purchase of a home, but he kept the property titled in the name of another person to conceal its ownership. He also used B&S money for other personal expenses.