Two Ky. businessmen indicted for fraud after not paying withholdings to retirement plans

Two business owners have been indicted in Kentucky federal courts for several charges after they were found to be withholding thousands of dollars in employee retirement benefit plans from their workers.

Billy Williamson and Thomas Fuhrmann are both owners of Applied Nuclear Services, Inc. (ANSi), in Falmouth, which includes oversight of hazardous waste removal, nuclear site decontamination, emergency management and preparation for a wide variety of inspections.

According to court documents, in May 2018, Williamson and Fuhrmann decided to pay ANSi employees net pay only, and did not notify them that plan withholdings were not being paid to their plans or that payroll taxes were not being paid at the time.

During that same time Fuhrmann stopped sending the company’s payroll information to a third-party payroll administrator and began to process the payroll through his own company, CS Oats.

Court documents state when he processed payroll, the employees received a direct deposit for their net pay, and ANSi did not pay the tax withholdings, employer taxes and plan withholdings which “deprived employees of their plan money.”

Williamson and Fuhrmann decided to pay other expenses including loans for advances on revenue amounts to more than $100,000 instead of to the plan they were due, court documents state.

From April 2018 to January 2020, both men instead repaid Furhmann and his company CS Oats for loans made to the ANSi company in the amount of $58,700, according to court documents.

The two face charges of conspiracy to commit fraud against the United States government and embezzlement of employee benefit plans.

According to the indictment, Williamson is also charged with wire fraud by obtaining and attempting to obtain Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL) through the Small Business Association (SBA) “under false and misleading pretenses,” including statements in a loan application.

Williamson is stated in the indictment to have transmitted the application through the SBA website and falsely claimed that ANSi had 10 employees, gross revenue of $1,200,000 and costs of goods sold of $900,000 for the year 2019 in an effort to obtain the loan.

According to court documents, Williamson sought $500,000 in EIDL funds, and received a $10,000 loan advancement for ANSi under the false pretenses.

The two men are to forfeit all the proceeds obtained as a result of the scheme.

For counts one and two, Williamson and Fuhrmann face up to 10 years in prison, fines up to $500,000 or twice the gross gain or loss to any person, and no more than six years supervised release for both charges.

For the third count of wire fraud against Williamson, he faces prison time of up to 20 years, a fine of $250,000, or twice the gross gain or loss, whichever is greater, and supervised release for no more than three years.