EAST ST. LOUIS - The U.S. District Court announced today a Madison County business owner has been indicted by a federal grand jury for tax evasion. Gary Hunsche, 54, of Troy, Illinois, has been charged with six counts of willfully failing to pay employment taxes and two counts of willfully failing to pay individual income taxes.
According to the indictment, Hunsche owned and operated two businesses in Troy – Unique Risk Management, Inc., and Unique Personal Consultants, Inc. – that supplied thousands of temporary employees to other businesses. The indictment alleges that between 2011 and 2016, Hunsche failed to pay the IRS over $15 million in federal incomes taxes, Social Security, and Medicare taxes, including $11 million in required withholdings from his employees’ paychecks. Hunsche is further accused of taking millions of dollars for himself and using the money to make improvements to his home, including a new pond and a barn with a full-sized basketball court.
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An indictment is a formal charge against a defendant. Under the law, a defendant is presumed to be innocent of a charge until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt to the satisfaction of a jury.
If convicted of failing to pay employment taxes, Hunsche faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine on each of the six counts. The remaining two counts of the indictment – failing to pay individual income tax – are misdemeanors that each carry up to a year in prison and a fine of not more than $100,000.
The ongoing investigation is being conducted by IRS Criminal Investigations. The prosecution is being handled by Assistant U.S. Attorney Norman R. Smith.
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