SAN ANTONIO (CN) - A Texas businessman admitted his role in a $133 million payroll scam that prosecutors called the largest fraud in San Antonio history.
Charles Pircher, 61, pleaded guilty Thursday to tax fraud conspiracy and mail fraud conspiracy. He faces up to 20 years in federal prison on the tax charge and up to 5 years for mail fraud.
The U.S. attorney called it "a wide-ranging and complex scheme, whose simple purpose was to steal money from company payroll by diverting tax and insurance payments all for personal enrichment. Pircher cheated clients and taxpayers for years."
Pircher managed several San Antonio-based professional employer organizations. From 2002 to 2008 they entered into staff leasing agreements with client companies to manage payroll and insurance programs.
Pircher admitted that he and other conspirators stole more than $133 million from the client company programs.
U.S. Chief District Judge Fred Biery has yet to schedule a sentencing date.
Pircher is the fifth defendant to plead guilty in the scheme. A sixth defendant, businessman Larry W. Kimes, of San Antonio, is set for trial on Jan. 23, 2014. He faces one count of tax fraud conspiracy, two counts of mail fraud conspiracy, one count of money laundering conspiracy and one substantive county of money laundering.
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