The former owner of a Oklahoma  temporary employment agency has been sentenced to prison for failing to pay more than $1 million in payroll taxes to the Internal Revenue Service.

 JANET CHRISTINE WHELAN, age 62, of Eufaula, Oklahoma, pled guilty to Willful Failure to Collect or Pay Over Tax, in violation of Title 26, United States Code, Section 7202. Charges arose from an investigation by the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigations Division.

Prosecutors say from April 2006 into 2009, Whelan didn't truthfully account for and pay over federal income taxes and payroll taxes to the IRS for the quarter ending April 2006. WHELAN conducted a business under the name Best Temps of Oklahoma, with its principal place of business in McAlester, Oklahoma.  During the first quarter of the year 2006, she deducted and collected from the total taxable wages of her employees federal income taxes and Federal Insurance Contributions Act taxes the sum of $44,991.65.

Whelan must pay more than $1 million in restitution to the IRS after she is released from prison, as ordered Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Ronald A. White, he also ordered her to serve 2 Years in prison.

Federal prosecutors in Muskogee accused Whelan of living a lavish lifestyle at the expense of her employees.   “The money that was intended to be withheld for them was instead used to fund (Whelan's) shopping sprees and lifestyle,” prosecutor Edward Snow wrote in a court filing.

“The Defendant regularly used the money that was to be withheld by depositing it into her business account and using the account for personal expenditures which included hundreds of dollars spent at high end stores, checks to cash and ATM withdrawals at casinos.