Arturo Barcenas Gonzalez, a businessman from Cary, North Carolina, was sentenced to 37 months in federal prison for evading over $1 million in federal taxes, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina announced today.
Barcenas operated several businesses, including Barcenas Insurance Agency, LLC (BIA) and Barcenas Financial Services, LLC (BFS). According to court documents, BIA ran a high-volume, cash-intensive operation, assisting undocumented individuals with vehicle registration and titling through fraudulent business names and certificates. BFS, on the other hand, specialized in preparing tax returns.
In July 2018, Barcenas filed a false 2017 federal income tax return, concealing more than $300,000 in revenue. Investigators later discovered that he stopped filing tax returns altogether after 2017, despite earning over $1 million annually from 2018 to 2022. To cover up his income, Barcenas used tactics such as titling assets under nominees, depositing business proceeds into personal accounts, and conducting large cash transactions.
Barcenas used the untaxed funds to support a lavish lifestyle, purchasing high-end vehicles and a $1 million residence. A May 2023 search of Barcenas’s offices led to the discovery of numerous income-related documents, confirming his tax evasion activities. The total tax loss attributed to Barcenas’s actions exceeded $1 million for the years 2018 through 2021.
U.S. Attorney Michael F. Easley, Jr. emphasized that North Carolina is strengthening its enforcement against white-collar crimes through state and federal collaborations. “This businessman’s convoluted scheme involved titling cars for cash and using that cash to creatively conceal his income,” Easley said, “further fueling a lifestyle complete with luxury vehicles and a million-dollar home.”
