Victims Coming Forward in Alleged $3.8 Million Payroll Fraud by West Des Moines Company

Legal problems may be just beginning for the embattled founder of a West Des Moines outsourcing company under pressure from the IRS, which has filed liens totaling more than $3.8 million to recover payroll taxes that should have been paid on behalf of the firm's clients.

In addition to his IRS troubles, InFocus Partners founder John Vratsinas, 30, of the 3100 block of Jordan Grove in West Des Moines, is the subject of a first-degree theft and fraud investigation, according to a report on file at the West Des Moines Police Department.

In that report, Des Moines contractor Priority Excavating claimed losses of $850,000 the company paid InFocus Partners’ subsidiary, ILC Staffing Inc., to administer its payroll.

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Owner Tobias “Toby” Torstenson told police Detective Tom Boyd that he was contacted by the IRS and informed his company has not paid federal taxes since 2009.

Torstenson paid the money to InFocus, who was supposed to forward it to the IRS but never did, the police report said. 

A message left for Vratsinas of InFocus for comment was not returned.

The $850,000 is included in a Friday IRS filing of a nearly $1.2 million federal tax lien against InFocus Partners and its subsidiary, ILC Staffing Inc., a limited liability company, seeking to collect payroll taxes that should have been paid during the past two quarters.

According to lien filings reported on the Iowa Secretary of State’s web site, InFocus and its affiliated companies have been behind in tax payments off and on since 2006. The latest filing is part of an overall $3.8 million collection effort.

InFocus Partners does business as ICL Staffing Inc., and both are owned by Iowa Construction Logistics Inc., a company Vratsinas founded in 2001 to provide staffing to the construction industry.

Vratsinas reportedly told InFocus clients that the company was good for the outstanding tax obligation, but at least one client doubts that claim.

“Given the situation, would they even have the ability to make good on this?” Jeff Lamberti, majority owner of the Iowa Barnstormers arena football team, another InFocus client, told Patch. “I don’t put much stock in any of that.”