A Santa Clara man has pleaded guilty to charges of not paying $1.15 million in employment taxes to the IRS.
According to the U.S. Attorney, John Comeau of Santa Clara served as the CEO of Vivid, Inc., a company that provided metal coating services across various industries in Campbell and other parts of the Bay Area.
According to the charges, from at least the first quarter of 2010 through the end of 2019, Vivid withheld Social Security, Medicare and income taxes from the wages paid to its employees. However, Comeau, who was responsible for ensuring those funds were reported and paid to the IRS, did not do so.
In total, Comeau caused a tax loss to the IRS of approximately $1,150,000.
Comeau is scheduled to be sentenced on Apr. 30, 2025, and faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison. He also faces a period of supervised release, restitution and monetary penalties.
According to Comeau’s LinkedIn profile, he has served as one of three owners of Vivid, Inc. since the company was founded in 1990.
The company’s website says that it was founded by three managers from Spectra-Physics, who took over when Spectra “branched the paint coatings division into an independent entity.”
The site says that since then, “… Vivid has grown to be one of the largest material coating providers in the Silicon Valley. Our customers include a number of the world’s leading equipment manufacturers in such industries as semiconductor, telecommunications, aerospace, automotive, solar and medical.”
A federal district court judge will determine any sentence for Comeau after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
The announcement of Comeau’s plea was made by U.S. Attorney Ismail J. Ramsey, Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stuart M. Goldberg of the Justice Department’s Tax Division, and IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) Oakland Field Office Special Agent in Charge Linda Nguyen.
IRS-CI investigated the case.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Ilham Hosseini and Trial Attorney Mahana Weidler of the Tax Division prosecuted the case.
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