Owner of Lexington business sentenced to federal prison, owes IRS $800,000
The owner of a Lexington business that failed to pay more than $800,000 in tax withholdings to the federal government has been sentenced to two years in prison.
Matthew J. Buresh also owes $805,787 to the Internal Revenue Service under the sentence.
Buresh, 65, of Shelbyville, was the owner of CR Cable Construction in Lexington, which installed underground utility lines.
The company was required to pay the IRS money withdrawn from employees’ checks for Social Security, Medicare and income taxes, as well as matching contributions, but didn’t remit all the required payments between 2017 and 2022, according to the court record.
Buresh’s attorney, Russ Baldani, said in a sentencing memorandum that he is a hardworking, decent man who didn’t pay all the taxes that were due when a “perfect storm” of economic problems hit his business, including the COVID-19 pandemic.
One employee said in a letter to the court that bankruptcies by other companies shorted CR Cable of $400,000 in revenue.
However, federal authorities said Buresh knew he owed the taxes and had the resources to pay them.
Buresh withdrew about $2.9 million from CR Cable Construction between 2017 and 2022, according to his plea agreement.
“His failure to pay the IRS taxes from 2017 through 2022 was no mistake,” the prosecutor, Assistant U.S. Attorney Brittany Dunn-Pirio, said in a sentencing memo.
U.S. District Judge Karen K. Caldwell sentenced Buresh on May 16.
