Grayslake man who didn't pay taxes on $2.3 million sent to federal prison

A 70-year-old Grayslake man who operated a manufacturing business in Wisconsin was sentenced to nine months in federal prison for failing to pay taxes on more than $2.3 million in cash transactions, according to federal prosecutors.

Herbert C. Watts, the owner and president of the Bristol, Wisconsin-based company Branko Perforating FWD Inc., failed to report cash receipts as income on his taxes from 2009 to 2014. In that time, Branko received more than $2.3 million in cash from the sale of scrap metal to a Cicero-based company.

The scrap sales were not reported in Branko's business records, and the cash income was concealed from accountants who prepared tax returns for Watts and the company.

The case is part an ongoing investigation of cash transactions in the local scrap metal industry that has resulted in several other convictions.

In addition to the nine-month prison term, U.S. District Judge John Robert Blakey on Tuesday fined Watts $10,000. Before he was sentenced, Watts paid the taxes he owed to the federal government and the state of Illinois.