Businessman pleads guilty to new charges

George Retos Jr., a Washington County businessman and federal felon, has admitted to new felony charges and will likely be headed to prison again.

Retos, who owns Prime Plastics and Plastic Power, pleaded guilty Friday to conspiring to defraud the IRS and making a false bankruptcy declaration.

He also accepted responsibility for a wire fraud charge involving a rip-off of the state’s unemployment compensation system. Although he didn’t plead guilty to the charge, U.S. District Judge Arthur Schwab will take it into consideration when he imposes sentencing next March.

Prosecutors said Retos and another person failed to forward to the IRS the payroll and employer taxes of the two plastics companies. To avoid long-running collection efforts by the IRS for unpaid taxes of Prime Plastics, Retos arranged for employees of Prime Plastics to be transferred to Plastic Power, which also didn’t pay payroll taxes. The amounts owed are more than $250,000.

Retos also admitted that he had Prime Plastics declare bankruptcy and then stated in court filings that there hadn’t been any withdrawals from the business outside of normal operations for the two years prior. But prosecutors said that was a lie because he made numerous withdrawals, including spending thousands on casino trips to Las Vegas.

In the unemployment scheme, Retos fraudulently obtained compensation for employees of his companies by reducing their salaries and telling them to seek unemployment from the state to make up the difference, knowing the workers were not eligible. Prosecutors said Retos also siphoned off company money for himself during the scheme.

Retos, 70, of Washington, went to prison for tax evasion, interstate transportation of stolen property and other offenses following a conviction in federal court in 1992.