A Missouri staffing firm owner was sentenced to two years and three months in prison and ordered to pay $493,000 in restitution in federal court Tuesday, the US Department of Justice announced. The owner, Joseph Patrick Balano, earlier pleaded guilty on Aug. 3 to tax charges.

Balano, 54, owned Global Employment Group Inc., which did business as Staffing Connections (Global Employment) in Grandview, Mo., and Kansas City, Mo., according to the Department of Justice.  Balano failed to forward $260,000 in money collected from employees in employment taxes to the government and did not pay more than $232,000 in the employer portion of employment taxes, according to the department. The total loss to the government was $493,000.

The money instead went for Balano’s personal expenses and family expenses including gambling, mortgage payments and car payments.

Two older businesses owned by Balano — Labor Connections and Labor Connections II — were dissolved in 2006, ostensibly because of employment tax issues, according to the department. In their place, Balano formed Global Employment in December 2006. Employees who had been working for Labor Connections and Labor Connections II began working for Global Employment. Business operations stayed in the same location.