A Taney County business owner whose family’s Ridgedale marina now is owned by Bass Pro Shops was sentenced yesterday for failing to pay the government more than $500,000 in taxes withheld from employees’ paychecks.
Justin Gage, 42, was ordered to serve one year and one day in federal prison without parole and pay $627,000 in restitution, according to a news release from the office of Tammy Dickinson, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Missouri.
The businessman pleaded guilty in January to embezzling roughly $503,000 between 2008 and 2011 by stealing employee taxes from several businesses he owned. In his guilty plea, Gage said he was aware of the tax requirements but willfully failed to pay them.
Gage owned and operated Eagle Construction and Excavating LLC, Gage Excavating LLC, Gage Family Entertainment LLC and Hollister Pizza Co. LLC, according to the release.
Gage had served as president of Gage’s Long Creek Marina, which was purchased in a March 2012 bankruptcy court-approved asset sale by Bass Pro through Big Cedar LLC with a bid of $2.3 million. The Gage family’s failure to sell a 149-passenger commercial yacht known as the Branson American Star to a prospective buyer led to Gage’s Long Creek Marina filing Chapter 11 bankruptcy, according to
Springfield Business Journal archives.
Now known as Bass Pro’s Long Creek Marina, the boatyard and campground currently is closed for renovations and expected to reopen in 2017, according to the
company’s website.
