Southampton Couple Who Owned Florist Service Jailed For Tax Fraud

SOUTHAMPTON, PA — A married couple from Southampton has been sentenced to prison for tax fraud. Andrew Bassaner, 45, was sentenced to 42 months in jail, and his wife, Vicki, was sentenced to six months, United States Attorney William M. McSwain announced this week.

The pair was convicted in February of filing false income tax returns, and failing to collect, account for, and pay over taxes for employees.

Bassaner and Bunchuk were the owners and operators of Florist Concierge Corporation, a company incorporated in Pennsylvania but located in Orlando, Florida. The company was a telephone call center and internet service that accepted floral arrangement orders from customers throughout the United States.

According to McSwain's office, the couple fraudulently deducted more than $200,000 in personal expenses on their income taxes, claiming they were legitimate business expenses. The expenses included luxury cars, a down payment on a multimillion-dollar house, tickets to sporting events, and home repairs.

The defendants failed to collect and pay over employment taxes, Federal Insurance Contribution Act taxes, and federal unemployment taxes on behalf of employees who worked for them for 14 consecutive quarters from 2001 through 2014, authorities said.

The defendants mischaracterized employees as contractors in an attempt to avoid collecting and paying over employment taxes.

“Our tax collection system relies on citizens playing by the rules. And the system only works if fraudsters like these defendants pay the price for lying and cheating the government out of paying their fair share of taxes,” said McSwain. “These defendants have earned their time behind bars to think long and hard about what they did.”

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