Month: October 2016

Sporting KC plays host to Trinidad and Tobago team tonight in KCK

Sporting Kansas City closes out the 2016-17 CONCACAF Champions League group stage on Wednesday, as host of Central FC of Trinidad and Tobago in a 7 p.m. kickoff at Children’s Mercy Park in Kansas City, Kan.

Tickets for the match are available at Ticketmaster.com, while CONCACAF’s official Facebook page will provide an English-language live stream.

Wednesday’s game serves as a battle for second place in Group C of North America’s premier club competition. Vancouver Whitecaps FC (4-0-0, 12 points) have already punched their ticket to next year’s knockout rounds, eliminating Sporting Kansas City (0-2-1, 1 point) and Central FC (0-2-1) in the process.

With a pivotal decision day showdown against the San Jose Earthquakes beckoning this weekend, Sporting Kansas City’s manager has ushered in squad reinforcements for the midweek clash.

Defender Ever Alvarado and midfielder Emmanuel Appiah have been recalled from their loans to the Swope Park Rangers, while Tyler Pasher, Tomas Granitto, Alex Molano and Nansel Selbol join Sporting KC from SPR on short-term agreements. Granitto, Molano and Selbol earn their first call-ups to Sporting Kansas City.

The CCL fixture comes four days before Sporting Kansas City and the Swope Park Rangers play their biggest games of the year on Sunday. Sporting KC will play host to San Jose at 3 p.m. Sunday, knowing a decision day victory would clinch a club-record sixth straight playoff berth. The Rangers then look to bring a league championship back to Kansas City when they visit New York Red Bulls II in the 2016 USL Cup final at 7 p.m. Sunday.

Central FC has the same record in Group C as Sporting Kansas City, taking a draw and two losses from their first three games. The Sharks suffered a 1-0 home defeat to Vancouver on Aug. 2 before holding Sporting Kansas City to a 2-2 draw a fortnight later. Vancouver completed its sweep of Central FC with a 4-1 victory on Sept. 28, officially bouncing Central FC from the tournament.
Wednesday’s contestants first met on Aug. 16 in Sporting Kansas City’s group stage opener at Ato Boldon Stadium in Couva, Trinidad and Tobago. Sporting KC came from behind to earn a 2-2 draw in an entertaining affair that produced four second-half goals. Defenders Seth Sinovic and Kevin Ellis bookended the scoring with their first goals of the year, while Marcus Joseph and Kenwyne Jones struck for the Sharks.

Led by head coach Dale Saunders, Central FC has enjoyed tremendous success since its founding in 2012. The Sharks have claimed two straight TT Pro League titles and are two-time defending champions of the CFU Club Championship, a tournament contested by the best clubs from the Caribbean Football Union. Central FC is making its second appearance in the CONCACAF Champions League, having crashed from the 2015-2016 group stage last fall after finishing second behind LA Galaxy.

The Sharks are off to a 3-0-0 start in the TT Pro League and sit atop the standings as they seek a third consecutive domestic title. Midfielder Darren Mitchell leads the league with four goals scored, while Trinidad and Tobago captain striker Kenwyne Jones – currently on loan from MLS expansion side Atlanta United FC – boasts almost a decade of experience in the English Premier League.

The CONCACAF Champions League is an international tournament made up of the best teams from North America, Central America and the Caribbean. The 2016-2017 group stage divides the 24 teams into eight groups of three and is contested in a round-robin, home-and-away, four-game format that runs from August through October. Sporting Kansas City punched their ticket via the 2015 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup championship, ousting the Philadelphia Union in a penalty shootout following a 1-1 draw last September.

Additional in-game updates will be available on the SportingKC.com Match Tracker and through the club’s official mobile app Sporting KC Uphoria.

Leawood business owner sentenced to prison for tax evasion

A Leawood, Kan., business owner was sentenced to 4.25 years in prison after being convicted of tax evasion following a five-week jury trial in April, announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Caroline D. Ciraolo, head of the Justice Department’s Tax Division, and acting U.S. Attorney Thomas Beall of the District of Kansas.

According to the evidence at trial, Kathleen M. Stegman, 58, owned and operated Midwest Medical Aesthetics (Midwest).

During the years 2006 through 2010, Stegman concealed cash receipts, diverted hundreds of thousands of dollars from Midwest for her personal use, created and used an entity to falsify business expenses and hide Midwest customer checks and falsely claimed as business expenses a mortgage payment on an investment property, the cost of an invisible dog fence, residential gas and electricity bills, Mercedes Benz lease payments and an investment in a deck coating product, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.

The government also presented evidence that Stegman used the money she diverted from Midwest to fund a lavish lifestyle, including the purchase of condominiums in Las Vegas, over $300,000 in gold coins, a 54-foot yacht and real estate in North Carolina.

The evidence presented also established that Stegman caused an employee to destroy business records during a civil tax audit, provided the Internal Revenue Service with false and altered documents and attempted to tamper with a witness’s statement to criminal investigators.

In addition to the prison term, U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson ordered Stegman to pay restitution to the IRS in the amount of $68,733 as a condition of supervised release and a fine in the amount of $100,000.

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Ciraolo commended special agents of IRS-Criminal Investigation, who conducted the investigation and Trial Attorneys Ryan R. Raybould and John T. Mulcahy of the Tax Division and Assistant U.S. Attorney Jabari B. Wamble of the District of Kansas, who prosecuted the case.