Payroll Service Owner Sentenced for Tax Fraud and Embezzlement

On March 16, 2015, in Los Angeles, California, Scott Willsea, an owner of Paycare, Inc., was sentenced to 37 months in prison and ordered to pay $1,873,617 in restitution. Willsea previously pleaded guilty to failure to pay federal payroll taxes intended for the IRS. According to the plea agreement, from at least 2008 through March 2011, Willsea, along with his wife, Isabel, co-owned and operated Paycare, a Riverside-based payroll service. During the 2009 and 2010 tax years, Willsea and Paycare prepared quarterly payroll taxes for at least 15 different client companies for which they failed to account for and pay over to the IRS the full amount of tax due and owed by each company. In at least 35 separate instances, Willsea collected from client companies of Paycare the entire amount they owed the IRS for payroll taxes and failed to pay the IRS the full amount. In each instance, Willsea kept a portion of the money for his own use and benefit.