Langhorne Contractor Pleads Guilty To Large Tax Fraud

February 23, 2022

The seal of the U.S. Department of Justice.

A Langhorne-based contractor pleaded guilty this week to a tax fraud scheme.

Samuel Bullock, 72, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Michael Baylson to the crime, according to the office of the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

Federal authorities said Bullock, who operated general contracting business Bullock Construction, avoided paying close to $1.3 million in federal income taxes.

Bullock was charged in September 2020 with multiple tax charges, including one count of aiding and assisting in the filing of a false federal tax return, and one count of willful failure to file a federal tax return.

Authorities said Bullock failed to file federal income tax returns for more than a decade leading up to 2009.

The IRS ended securing liens against Bullock in 2009 for more than $1.2 million assessed in taxes, with interest and penalties, authorities said.

“The defendant responded by taking steps to avoid collection by arranging to have his business income paid over to a sole proprietorship that he had set up in the name of his spouse, including providing his clients with new Forms W-9 with his spouse’s Social Security number and opening a new business checking account in his spouse’s name and the alleged sole proprietorship,” federal prosecutors said.

Bullock is reported to have filed information with his own income in his wife’s name using the filing status “married filing separately,” authorities said.

“Although he was aware that he had earned income and was obliged to file a federal income tax return, Bullock failed to do so,” prosecutors said.

“Samuel Bullock’s scheme to enrich himself and avoid paying his fair share of income taxes victimized honest American taxpayers and business owners who do pay their tax obligations,” U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania Jennifer Arbittier Williams said in a statement. “By ignoring the IRS and its legitimate demands for information from him, the defendant magnified his own tax liabilities. This type of fraud will be aggressively investigated and prosecuted by this office.”