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Does anyone remember a past SCRA driver with the last name Custer? I think he was a team mate to John Scott, the yellow #83 Pace electronics car. Maybe the Custer car was #30? Anyway, I keep reading about the Nascar/Haas/CNC teams legal troubles and a guy named Joe Custer is repeatedly named as team general manager and now owner of the team. I noticed it says he is from Camarillo, CA and was wondering if this could be the same guy? If I remember correctly he had a ton of money so I wondered if there was a connection? See Jayski.com excerpt below......
Haas CNC Racing owner to plead guilty to tax charges UPDATE: The owner of the nation’s largest maker of machine tools agreed yesterday to plead guilty to conspiracy in cheating the government out of $34.3 million in taxes through what the I.R.S. called “deceptive and elaborate tax evasion schemes.” The businessman, Gene F. Haas [owner of the Haas CNC Racing Nextel Cup teams #66 amd #70, Joe Custer is now listed as the owner of the teams], 55, of Camarillo, Calif., will be the fourth and last defendant to admit guilt in the case, which involves his company, Haas Automation, as well as several others. He is to change his plea to guilty on Monday. The plea agreement is subject to approval by a Federal District Court judge in Los Angeles. Back taxes, a $5 million fine, fraud penalties of 40% and interest will bring Mr. Haas’s total cost for cheating on his 2000 and 2001 taxes to more than $70 million. He also agreed to serve two years in prison. The criminal charges stemmed from three fake-invoice schemes that involved Mr. Haas’s main company as well as his NASCAR racing team and a land title company. The deception included creating a fake company in Nevada called Supermill. Mr. Haas paid three employees or associates, who have already pleaded guilty, 2 percent of what he avoided paying in taxes, according to court papers. The tax evasion apparently began with a patent infringement lawsuit against Mr. Haas.(New York Times)(8-25-2007)
UPDATE: Haas CNC Racing team owner Gene Haas appeared in U.S. District Court today in Los Angeles and pled guilty to one count of tax fraud. The plea bargain includes a two-year prison term for Haas, the owner of Haas Automation, which is the largest dollar-volume machine tool builder in North America and the largest unit-volume builder of CNC machines in the world. Haas' sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 5. If the judge declines to impose the two-year sentence, Haas or the government will be allowed to withdraw from the plea agreement. Haas, who was arrested in June 2006 after a lengthy investigation, agreed to pay $34.2 million in back taxes for the years 2000 and 2001, as well as a $5 million fine. With statutory penalties and interest on the back taxes, Haas owes more than $70 million to the government. Joe Custer, Haas CNC Racing general manager, said Monday afternoon that the race team will not be impacted by the Haas' guilty plea. The team fields Nextel Cup cars for #66-Jeff Green (primary sponsor Best Buy) and #70-Johnny Sauter (primary sponsor Yellow Transportation). "It's good to put this behind us," Custer said. "This subject has been out there for three years." Custer said the team hopes to retain the sponsors. Yellow mostly uses the sponsorship to entertain clients while Best Buy primarily uses its sponsorship to sell electronics. "We're working through it with them," Custer said. "I think it will work out. Everybody wants to stick with somebody in a tough time. Best Buy's investment in NASCAR has been good so far. We've given them a good value." Haas is required to serve 85% of the sentence before being considered for release, so he will have to serve at least 20 months and 12 days in prison. "We'll be all right," Custer said. "Haas Automation owns Haas CNC Racing. At the end of the day, their business is tremendously successful. You don't love these days, but we'll get through it."(SceneDaily.com)(8-28-2007)
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