Former Branson time-share salesman sentenced to prison

A former Branson time-share salesman who was on the run in Mexico for nearly seven years was sentenced today to prison time for tax evasion.

Former Springfield resident Scott Lucas, aka Scott Bogan, 57, was sentenced to two years and one month in federal prison without parole and ordered to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in restitution, according to a news release from the office of Tammy Dickinson, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Missouri.

Lucas is required to pay $127,721, plus interest, in unpaid federal income taxes 2002-05. He also must pay $41,368 to Missouri for state taxes he evaded during the same time.

The former salesman for Wyndham Vacation Ownership Inc., dba Fairfield Resorts, earned a sum of $811,367 during the 2002-05 tax years. During that time, $719,505 was taxable, and Lucas failed to pay $142,418 in federal taxes and $41,368 in state income taxes, according to the release.

Upon learning of a federal grand jury investigation into the tax evasion, Lucas fled to Mexico, where he remained until a U.S. Marshals Service task force traced him to Playa del Carman in February 2015. He was arrested two months later at Denver International Airport after returning to the U.S. to seek medical treatment, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.

To avoid having taxes withheld from his paychecks, Lucas filed IRS forms claiming exemption from the withholding of income taxes. According to the investigation, he also admitted to titling a 1998 Hummer he purchased in 2003 under another person’s name, left the registration of a houseboat he bought in 2006 in the previous owner’s name, and used a false Social Security number in the application and loan documents for the purchase of a $275,000 Springfield home in 2004, according to the release.