TEEMCO ex-CEO gets 5 years in tax case
The former president and CEO of an Oklahoma City environmental sales and consulting company was sentenced Thursday to five years in federal prison for not paying payroll taxes.
From 2010 to 2015, Gregory Damien Lorson, 61, failed to pay federal payroll taxes withheld from wages of TEEMCO employees.
He pleaded guilty in June to one count of willful failure to collect and pay federal payroll taxes to the Internal Revenue Service. Prosecutors said instead of forwarding the withheld payroll taxes to the IRS, Lorson used that money to fund TEEMCO's extensive advertising campaign and to pay other creditors and expenses.
Lorson, of Panama City, Florida, is required to pay more than $3.5 million in restitution.
He formed TEEMCO LLC in 2010 and controlled day-to-day operations of the Oklahoma City energyrelated business, including decisions on sales, hiring and finances.
The company closed its doors in 2015. Lorson was convicted in 1998 in Tulsa on federal fraud charges that he and a business partner diverted money they received from debtors at a collection agency to settle delinquent accounts.
While serving his sentence, Lorson met Michael S. Dixon, who became TEEMCO's chief financial officer. Dixon left the company after he and Lorson disagreed over corporate finances.
The Oklahoman reported in 2015 that TEEMCO was sued by its Oklahoma Citybased public relations firm, Jones PR, with claims TEEMCO owed more than $24,000 for “strategic communication, branding and marketing.”
Lorson was evicted from his duplex the same year, according to court records.
TEEMCO had plans to renovate the iconic Gold Dome building at NW 23 and Classen Boulevard. Those plans never came to fruition.
In September, The Oklahoman reported that renovation work would resume under developer Jonathan Russell.