Christian County Reserve Deputy Pleads Guilty to Tax Fraud

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – A reserve deputy sheriff for Christian County, Mo., pleaded guilty in federal court today to tax fraud.

Marty Layne Brickey, 47, of Republic, Mo., pleaded guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge David P. Rush to one count of failure to pay over to the IRS the payroll taxes he collected from his employees. Under the terms of today’s plea agreement, Brickey has agreed to pay $114,449 in restitution to the IRS and $539,260 in restitution in connection with some investments made to Brickey or his companies.

Brickey has been commissioned as a reserve deputy sheriff in Christian County since 2012. Brickey owned and operated several companies that marketed, promoted and managed software development. Interzone Entertainment, LLC, had offices located in Springfield, Mo., Chicago, Ill., Perth, Australia, Belo Horizonte, Brazil, and in China before it ceased operations in February 2010. Big Collision Games, LLC, had offices in Texas and in Dublin, Ireland. MasterTitle Games, Inc., and Spectacle Games maintained offices in Austin, Texas. Brickey also owned Zoonik USA, Inc., and Studio Avenue, Inc.

By pleading guilty today, Brickey admitted that he voluntarily and intentionally failed to pay over to the IRS $15,031 in payroll taxes tax (including federal income taxes, Medicare and Social Security taxes) that he collected from Interzone employees during the second quarter of 2009. Brickey acknowledged that the total tax loss, including all relevant conduct, is $114,449.

 Restitution payments to various investors are related to funds solicited by Brickey to bring a video game to market, which did not come to fruition. Although Brickey will pay restitution to the investors, today’s plea agreement does not constitute any admission of criminal culpability or civil liability on his part, and the government does not allege any criminal culpability with respect to the investments.

Under federal statutes, Brickey is subject to a sentence of up to five years in federal prison without parole. The maximum statutory sentence is prescribed by Congress and is provided here for informational purposes, as the sentencing of the defendant will be determined by the court based on the advisory sentencing guidelines and other statutory factors. A sentencing hearing will be scheduled after the completion of a presentence investigation by the United States Probation Office.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Patrick Carney and Casey Clark. It was investigated by IRS-Criminal Investigation and the FBI.