Government recommends 18-month sentence for Joplin/Carthage businesswoman who failed to pay taxes, frequented casinos

In a sentencing memo filed today in U. S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri, the U. S. Attorney's office recommended an 18-month sentence for a Joplin woman who stopped paying federal taxes for her company.

The government did not buy some of the excuses Karen Sue Lauridsen, 60, gave for her crimes.

There are no mitigating circumstances in the defendant’s history. 

The Government is cognizant of the fact that the defendant reports suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder resulting from a 2009 car accident. However, this does not appear to have played a role in her crime, as she kept Company A current on its employment taxes until 2012. 

The Government is also aware that the defendant also reports struggling with depression and grief related to the sudden loss of her granddaughter in 2014. However, the defendant’s failure to pay over Company A’s employment taxes predated her granddaughter’s passing.

Given the timeline, the Government does not consider either of these events—traumatic and tragic as they may be—mitigating circumstances.

Lauridsen's company wasn't named in the indictment, which noted the company was located in Carthage between 2003 and 2016 then moved to Joplin.

The allegations were detailed in the indictment:

Prior to the Fourth Quarter of 2011, Company A filed its IRS Forms 941 and paid over its employment taxes to the IRS. Then, beginning in January 2012, LAURIDSEN ceased filing Company A’s quarterly IRS Forms 941 and failed to make payments to the IRS for the employment taxes Company A owed the IRS.

Altogether, from the Fourth Quarter of 2011 through the Fourth Quarter of 2017, LAURIDSEN withheld $199,348 in employment taxes from Company A’s employees’ wages that she did not pay over to the IRS.

In August 2017, an IRS Revenue Officer (Revenue Officer) undertook collection efforts regarding Company A’s delinquent employment taxes. On September 13, 2017, the Revenue Officer interviewed LAURIDSEN. During that interview, LAURIDSEN told the Revenue Officer that she was responsible for filing Company A’s IRS Forms 941 and paying Company A’s employment taxes.
Further, LAURIDSEN acknowledged that she had withheld the trust fund portion of Company A’s employment taxes from the employee’s paychecks since at least October 2011 but had not paid the withheld amounts over to the IRS since the Fourth Quarter of 2011.

Further, on September 13, 2017, LAURIDSEN also told the Revenue Officer that she would provide Company A’s delinquent IRS Forms 941 to the Revenue Officer and pay Company A’s delinquent employment taxes upon doing so.

As a result of the Revenue Officer’s collection efforts, in September 2017 and October 2017, LAURIDSEN filed Company A’s IRS Forms 941 for the First Quarter 2012 through the Second Quarter 2017.

LAURIDSEN signed each of the IRS Forms 941, and attested on each Form 941, “Under penalties of perjury, I declare that I have examined this return, including accompanying schedules and statements, and to the best of my knowledge and belief, it is true, correct, and complete.”

Despite filing Company A’s Forms 941 and admitting to Company A’s employment tax delinquency, LAURIDSEN did not pay over Company A’s delinquent employment taxes.

Further, from 2013 through 2018, including after LAURIDSEN was interviewed by the Revenue Officer on September 13, 2017, LAURIDSEN moved tens of thousands of dollars from Company A’s Southwest Missouri Bank account to her Arvest Bank, Southwest Missouri Bank, and UMB Bank accounts, and then used tens of thousands of dollars from those accounts to pay for gambling trips to, and to gamble at, multiple casinos in several states, including, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, and Oklahoma.

In January 2018, the Revenue Officer began enforcement actions, by, among other things, regularly levying Company A’s Southwest Missouri Bank account in an attempt to collect Company A’s delinquent employment taxes.

In response to the IRS levies of Company A’s Southwest Missouri Bank account, LAURIDSEN moved funds back and forth between Company A’s Southwest Missouri Bank account and her UMB Bank, Southwest Missouri Bank, and Arvest Bank accounts.

In July 2018 alone, LAURIDSEN wrote 28 checks against Company A’s Southwest Missouri Bank account to herself totaling $79,352.99, only to return some of the funds to Company A’s Southwest Missouri Bank account to cover Company A expenses as needed.







IRS Special Agents interviewed LAURIDSEN on November 28, 2018. During the interview, LAURIDSEN admitted that she had moved funds between Company A’s Southwest Missouri Bank account and her personal UMB Bank, Southwest Missouri Bank, and Arvest Bank accounts in order to avoid IRS levies.

Further, on November 28, 2018, LAURIDSEN told IRS Special Agents that she had stopped gambling in 2018. However, LAURIDSEN gambled at Grand Lake Casino, Grove, Oklahoma; Downstream Casino Resort, Quapaw, Oklahoma; and Harrah’s Kansas City, North Kansas City, Missouri, in December 2018, January 2019, and February 2019, respectively.

Lauridsen's sentencing is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, July 26.