SAN JOSE, Calif. The owners of a San Jose bus company were arrested late last month and charged with 14 felony offenses, including insurance fraud and tax evasion.

Gerald Quint of San Jose and Susan Stommel of Pleasanton, are the owners and operators of New Century Transportation. The 10-year-old company has a fleet of motorcoaches, transit and midsize, limousines and town cars.

Santa Clara County prosecutors say Quint and Stommel committed workers' compensation insurance fraud, grand theft, income and corporate tax evasion, and unemployment insurance tax evasion.

The prosecutors say the scheme cost the state of California and workers' compensation insurance companies $2.2 million -- $3 million with interest and penalties.

If convicted on all counts, Quint and Stommel face more than 15 years in prison.

"By avoiding millions of dollars in required taxes and insurance premiums, the defendants not only profited illegally, but also gained an unfair advantage over honest business competitors," said District Attorney Dolores Carr.

When the pair were arrested they were taken to Santa Clara County jail; bail was initially set at $1 million each.

The company operated by Quint and Stommel has about 30 employees, and operates largely in Santa Clara and nearby San Francisco. It contracts with Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority to provide the Altamont Commuter Express shuttle and Downtown Area Shuttle services.

It also provides contracted shuttle services from transportation hubs and light rail stations to corporate offices. Plus, it operates the shuttle buses for a popular non-profit arts center and charters to casinos.

One competitor said New Century owes area coach operators more than $125,000 for work the operators provided to New Century.

Prosecutors said their investigation revealed that between 2004 and 2006, New Century failed to report more than $4.5 million in wages to the state Employment Development Department.

Additionally, Quint and Stommel allegedly deducted personal income taxes and disability taxes from employees' wages but pocketed the money instead of remitting it to the Employment Development Department.

As a result, the pair defrauded the state of more than $280,000. And because paid wages are used as the primary basis to calculate a business' workers compensation insurance premium, prosecutors said "such gross underreporting in payroll" also illegally and substantially lowered the workers compensation insurance premiums for New Century.

Prosecutors say the total amount of premium defrauded between 2003 and 2006 was more than $1.3 million.

Investigators also said Quint and Stommel failed to report nearly $11 million in New Century revenue from 2002 through 2005, resulting in evasion of more than $480,000 in state corporate and personal income taxes.