DOJ: Oregon man used fraud proceeds for ultimate frisbee tournament deposit

An Oregon man was sentenced to 42 months in prison for tax evasion, employment tax crimes, bank fraud, wire fraud and aggravated identity theft, the Justice Department announced.

According to court documents and statements made in court, Joel Matthew Caswell, 32, of Jacksonville, Oregon, held ownership or managing interests in three logging and construction businesses that collectively employed approximately 40 people. Prosecutors said Caswell controlled the business and financial affairs of at least two of the companies and was responsible for withholding Social Security, Medicare and federal income taxes from employees’ pay and remitting those funds to the IRS.

From 2018 through 2022, Caswell withheld employment taxes from workers but willfully failed to turn the money over to the IRS, according to the Justice Department. He attempted to evade those and other taxes by directing customers to write checks to another company or to him personally, moving business funds and lying to IRS collection officers. The IRS assessed the Trust Fund Recovery Penalty against Caswell in 2019 based on the unpaid payroll taxes, prosecutors said.

Separately, between 2022 and 2024, Caswell carried out multiple fraud schemes involving fabricated financial records submitted to a bank, a private lender and the Small Business Administration to secure loans, according to the Justice Department. He submitted fraudulent Paycheck Protection Program and Economic Injury Disaster Loan applications for all three businesses and transferred $70,000 in fraud proceeds to be used as a deposit for an ultimate frisbee tournament. Caswell also used another person’s identifying information to obtain a residential mortgage, according to court documents.

On June 9, Caswell pleaded guilty to three counts of tax evasion, three counts of willful failure to pay over employment taxes, one count of bank fraud, one count of wire fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft. In addition to the prison term, U.S. District Judge Michael J. McShane ordered him to serve five years of supervised release and pay $1,198,799.83 in restitution to the IRS.

Assistant Attorney General Colin McDonald of the Justice Department’s National Fraud Enforcement Division and U.S. Attorney Scott E. Bradford for the District of Oregon announced the sentencing. IRS Criminal Investigation, the FBI and the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management investigated the case. Trial Attorney J. Parker Gochenour of the Criminal Division’s Tax Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney John C. Brassel for the District of Oregon prosecuted it.