Mark Haneborg was sentenced Monday for tax evasion in Nebraska, more than a year after charges against he and his wife were filed.

Haneborg was convicted of one count of income tax evasion and three counts of filing a fraudulent income tax return. He pled no contest to the charges. In a plea agreement with prosecutors, two other counts of tax evasion were dismissed.

Lincoln County District Court Judge Cindy Volkmer fined him $5,000 per count, totaling $20,000.

Also, the state has $63,500 in cash that investigators seized as evidence. Haneborg will not get that money back. And, the $2,250 bond that he paid last year to get out of jail will be divided for court costs and attorney fees.

Volkmer also ordered Haneborg to file corrected income tax forms for the years of the violations – 2019, 2020 and 2021 — adding that he has already done so, as well as for the year 2022.

Presumably when Haneborg filed those amended tax returns, he paid the proper amount of state income taxes, plus interest, for those years.

The case against Haneborg’s wife, Bridget, was dismissed, which was another part of the plea agreement. She was initially charged with the same crimes as her husband.

Operating under the name NP Skills, the Haneborgs owned several skill casinos, including some in North Platte and Kearney.

They were charged on Feb. 2, 2023, The affidavit of arrest did not state the number of establishments that NP Skills owned, but it stated that the company had 105 cash devices registered with the state of Nebraska.

A former NP Skills employee told the Nebraska Department of Revenue that the company was not reporting employee wages, nor all of its income, to Nebraska’s Department of Revenue and the Internal Revenue Service.

A Nebraska investigator reviewed NP Skills’ 2020 state income tax form and found that only $33,858 of gross business income (before expenses) was declared. However, he found that, according to industry standards, the estimated income from 105 cash devices could have been as much as $1.2 million.

He said records and evidence show that, during the three years of 2019-21, the couple’s company earned $1.76 million.

In mid-July 2022, highly visible law enforcement raids were conducted at Haneborg’s River Valley Casino at 1105 S. Dewey, as well as the couple’s home at 2201 Sunset Ave. in southwest North Platte.

The number of cop cars attracted considerable attention. In the arrest affidavit, the lead investigator said officers found $75,000 in cash that day at the couple’s home. Also, they talked to a swimming pool contractor at the house, who admitted his company had been paid $80,000 in smaller cash amounts during the previous six months for the work. Investigators calculated that the Haneborgs owed the state of Nebraska $108,559 in income tax for those years, plus another $57,280 in penalties.

The Haneborgs each posted the required 10% of their $25,000 bonds shortly after they were arrested. They have been out of jail since.

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