Lackawanna county business owners plead guilty to failing to pay employment taxes

Date: Sept. 19, 2025

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SCRANTON, PA - The United States Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that Vincent Guntur of Dunmore, Pennsylvania, and Angelica Jones of Hauppauge, New York, both pleaded guilty before Senior United States District Judge Malachy E. Mannion to one count of failure to remit employment taxes. Both Guntur and Jones were charged by criminal information on September 9, 2025.

According to Acting United States Attorney John C. Gurganus, from approximately 2018 through the third quarter of 2024, Guntur and Jones owned and operated four companies, Mega & G Inc., Yoagen LLC, Phoenix 89 LLC, and Starlight & Sun Inc., and engaged in the business of temporary employee staffing, that is, leasing temporary employees to other companies, such as food services companies. As individuals who exercised control over the companies' financial affairs, both Guntur and Jones were persons responsible for collecting, accounting for, and paying over to the Internal Revenue Service employment taxes for their companies' employees. Guntur and Jones, however, willfully failed to collect, account for, and pay more than $1.3 million in employment taxes due and owing to the IRS during that timeframe.

Both Guntur and Jones agreed to make full restitution of the employment taxes due and owing to the IRS as part of their sentence.

"Business owners have a responsibility to withhold income taxes for their employees and then remit those taxes to the Internal Revenue Service," stated Yury Kruty, Special Agent in Charge, IRS-Criminal Investigation, Philadelphia Field Office.

The case was investigated by the IRS-Criminal Investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kyle A. Moreno prosecuted the case.

The maximum penalty under federal law for this offense is five years of imprisonment, a term of supervised release following imprisonment, and a fine. A sentence following a finding of guilt is imposed by the Judge after consideration of the applicable federal sentencing statutes and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines.

IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) is the law enforcement arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more. IRS-CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code, obtaining a 90% federal conviction rate. The agency has 19 field offices located across the U.S. and 14 attaché posts abroad.