Belinda Jo Juarez, 53, of Boerne, was sentenced to 36 months (3 years) in federal prison for embezzling employee health insurance premiums and evading taxes.
As the majority owner and CEO of Superior Home Health Service, Juarez withheld health insurance premiums from her employees' paychecks starting in August 2017 but failed to remit them to the insurance providers, even after the providers canceled their contracts due to non-payment. Employees, some of whom incurred medical expenses, were not informed of their canceled insurance coverage. Juarez was ordered to pay $617,738.65 in restitution to former employees for the improperly withheld premiums and related medical debts.
Juarez was also sentenced for willfully failing to remit over $1 million in payroll taxes between 2016 and 2019, resulting in a total restitution of $3,667,098.88 owed to the IRS.
“Protecting the public treasury is one of the primary missions of federal law enforcement,” said U.S. Attorney Jaime Esparza for the Western District of Texas. “It is even more important when, as in this case, there is direct harm to civilian victims. Not only did this defendant withhold millions in tax payments to the government, but the ill-gotten gains also came directly from the paychecks of her own employees.”
“Juarez let greed drive her to defraud the government and left her employees to face the horror of losing their health insurance when they needed it most,” said acting Special Agent in Charge Lucy Tan for IRS Criminal Investigation’s Houston Field Office. “This case was referred to us by another IRS division, just as we get tips from the public and requests from other agencies. We pair our law enforcement and accounting skills in order to bring justice to victims because criminal greed doesn’t stop at one tax violation.”
“I hope this sends a clear message to all who sponsor or transact business with employee benefit plans that the federal government will aggressively pursue those who commit crimes against employees and retirees of private-sector pension and health plans,” said Dallas Regional Director Deborah Perry for the Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA).
IRS-CI and the EBSA investigated the case.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Justin Chung and Justin Simmons prosecuted the case.
