Mary Lavine, Tax Evasion, Wisconsin 2024

A high-ranking official in the world of coin-operated music and amusement games has been brought to justice for her role in evading over $3 million in taxes, according to a report from the Western District of Wisconsin.

Mary Lavine, 65, of Madison, Wisconsin, pleaded guilty to conspiring to defraud the Internal Revenue Service and to filing a false 2018 corporate income tax return for her business Bullseye, Inc.

Lavine’s scheme involved skimming cash receipts generated from video gaming machines at bars and failing to report 100% of the cash receipts to the IRS or Wisconsin Department of Revenue. This underreporting caused Bullseye to evade its own corporate income taxes, as well as Wisconsin sales taxes and income taxes for Bullseye and its bar owners.

According to the government, during a four-year time span from 2015 to 2018, Bullseye evaded $3,028,930 in federal and state taxes.

Mary Lavine was sentenced to 1 year and 1 day in prison, imposed a $75,000 fine, and ordered to pay restitution of $834,769.65 to the IRS, and $1,927,852.56 to the Wisconsin Department of Revenue.

Lavine’s sentence was handed down by Chief U.S. District Judge James D. Peterson, who noted that the size of the tax evasion scheme, the large tax loss, and the long period of criminal activity all justified a term of incarceration.

In a statement, Judge Peterson noted that no special rules apply to cash businesses, and that tax evasion will be tolerated. He also emphasized that business owners need to be aware that this type of conduct will lead to incarceration.

The case against Lavine is the result of an ongoing investigation by IRS Criminal Investigation and the Wisconsin Department of Revenue, Office of Criminal Investigation. The prosecution of this case is being handled by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Daniel Graber and Chadwick Elgersma.

Mary Lavine’s guilty plea is the fourth to be sentenced in connection with this criminal tax investigation. Five individuals have pleaded guilty as part of this investigation, with Dudley Hellenbrand and Cherie Hellenbrand each sentenced to 6 months in prison, and Tom Laugen sentenced to 1 year and 1 day in prison. Colin Albany is scheduled to be sentenced on May 6.

The total amount of restitution ordered by Judge Peterson for these individuals is $3,807,566.

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