Roxanne Huneycutt
Pleaded guilty; not yet sentenced. Huneycutt admitted the conspiracy on October 21, 2026; sentencing is set for February 18, 2027.
Introduction
Roxanne L. Huneycutt, of Fenton, Michigan, is the owner and overseer of a series of full-service staffing companies who pleaded guilty on October 21, 2026, to conspiring to defraud the United States for more than a decade by failing to pay approximately $1.7 million in employment taxes owed to the IRS . The admitted scheme stretched from 2012 through 2024 and survived an early enforcement attempt: even after the IRS assessed penalties against her in 2015 for willfully failing to pay over employment taxes, Huneycutt did not pay the penalties or start complying with the law .
Background Information
Since 2012, Huneycutt’s staffing companies recruited temporary employees to perform manual labor, office administration, and other tasks for clients, making the companies responsible for handling payroll and employment taxes associated with those employees . Instead of paying the withheld taxes through, prosecutors said, the companies failed to pay approximately $1.7 million in employment taxes to the IRS over the twelve-year span . The Justice Department’s announcement was made by Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald of the National Fraud Enforcement Division, with IRS Criminal Investigation as the investigating agency and Unit Chief Jorge Almonte and Trial Attorney Hayter L. Whitman of the Fraud Division prosecuting the case .
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
To keep the conspiracy going and avoid detection, Huneycutt changed the names and physical locations of the staffing companies and filed paperwork with the State of Michigan indicating that she was not an owner of the companies she in fact owned and oversaw . She spent the proceeds on personal expenses, including travel, clothing, jewelry, housing, and home decoration, according to the Justice Department . Huneycutt pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States; her co-conspirator previously pleaded guilty to the same count and is awaiting sentencing . The willful-failure pattern ran through the whole scheme: the IRS had assessed penalties against her in 2015 for willfully failing to pay over certain employment taxes, and the response was neither payment nor compliance but renaming and relocation .
Public Reaction and Consequences
Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald of the Justice Department’s National Fraud Enforcement Division announced the plea; IRS Criminal Investigation investigated the case . The plea lands within the Justice Department’s broader employment-tax enforcement effort, which treats the willful failure to pay over withheld employee taxes as one of the most damaging forms of tax fraud because it converts workers’ payroll deductions into an owner’s personal spending .
Current Status
Huneycutt is scheduled to be sentenced on February 18, 2027, and faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison . A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors . Until sentencing, her staffing businesses’ twelve-year record of unpaid trust-fund taxes — and the paperwork filed to hide her ownership — remains the defining fact of the case .
Impact on Their Career/Life
The guilty plea converts Huneycutt from the owner of a roster of Michigan staffing firms into a convicted federal tax conspirator whose companies’ names and locations changed repeatedly to stay ahead of the IRS. With sentencing in February 2027 and her co-conspirator awaiting his own sentencing, the case closes the era in which the companies operated, and places a $1.7 million unpaid-tax figure at the center of her professional legacy.
Sources
- DOJ Office of Public Affairs, “Michigan Woman Pleads Guilty to Employment Tax Conspiracy,” October 21, 2026 — source