A Muskego man has been charged with one count of monetary laundering after he allegedly ran an unlicensed money transmitting business from his home.
Jorge Torres was the sole owner of
Torres, Inc., a drywall business that operated out of his Muskego home.
Torres, Inc. provided contract workers for residential and commercial drywall projects. Some of the people Torres worked with did not have bank accounts, so Torres agreed to perform check cashing services for several of them, according to a plea agreement filed this week.
From January 2014 to August 2018, Torres allegedly provided check cashing services for a fee to some workers without registering his services as a money transmitting service under federal law and without gaining an appropriate license from the state of Wisconsin, according to the plea agreement in the case. Torres allegedly performed these check cashing services approximately 136 times.
The fees and other related income were not property reported to the IRS and together resulted in a tax loss to the IRS of $323,667 for tax years 2014-218.
Torres has agreed to pay $323,667 in restitution to the IRS and will plead guilty to the one count of money laundering filed against him. He faces up to five years in prison and up to a $250,000 fine.
