Gene Haas

Haas Automation and Haas were the recipient of the Roy Pinkerton Award, presented by United Way, Ventura County Chapter. Many engineering colleges have "CNC Labs" outfitted with machines he donated, including California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly), California State University, Channel Islands, California State University, Northridge, and De Anza College.

Haas also has been a donor to two-year colleges, most recently Danville Community College through the award of a $1 million grant in April 2015 to support an Associate of Applied Science degree program in Integrated Machining Technology. The program, which will be housed in the Gene Haas Center for Integrated Machining in Danville, Virginia, will build upon the college's existing 80-credit Precision Machining Technology two-year diploma program.

The Gene Haas Foundation

The Gene Haas Foundation was founded in 1999 to provide grants to Ventura County community charities as the Boys and Girls Clubs, Food Share, Rescue Mission, and others.

The Foundation later expanded its mission to helping create more skilled manufacturing employees through the support of training and educational programs that include manufacturing, mostly in North America but also worldwide. To do this, the foundation provides scholarship grants, sponsoring individual and team competitions that use CNC manufacturing technologies (such as the foundation's extensive sponsoring of FIRST Robotics Competition teams), and supporting CNC training programs. In 2022, the Gene Haas Foundation provided more than $27 million in grants, bringing the total donations of the foundation since its foundation to more than $175 million.

On June 19, 2006, Haas was arrested by IRS agents on suspicion of filing false tax returns, witness intimidation, and conspiracy. Four others were indicted together with Haas, all of whom pleaded guilty.

Just before Haas's case was to go to trial, a plea agreement was reached, whereby he would plead guilty to felony conspiracy to commit tax evasion. He was sentenced to two years in prison and ordered to pay $75 million in restitution.

Haas was incarcerated beginning January 2008 and was released on probation on May 7, 2009, after serving 16 months of his two-year sentence.