The Tax Times: Another Employer Gets Criminally Prosecuting For Failure To Pay Withheld Payroll Taxes!

Thursday, June 4, 2020

Another Employer Gets Criminally Prosecuting For Failure To Pay Withheld Payroll Taxes!

On October 29, 2019 we posted The IRS is Now Criminally Prosecuting Employers For FailureTo Pay Withheld Payroll Taxes! where we discussed that the IRS is stepping up criminally prosecuting business owners for failing to turn over withheld payroll taxes and that in the last week there are no less than five (5) criminal prosecutions of business owners for failing the turnover withheld payroll taxes.

Now according to the DoJ, A Michigan real estate developer has been indicted for Tax Fraud! A federal grand jury in Grand Rapids, Michigan, returned an indictment on June 4, 2020, charging a Michigan businessman with tax evasion, filing false documents with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), making false statements to IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) agents, and mortgage fraud.

According to the indictment, Scott Allan Chappelle, of Okemos and East Lansing, Michigan, was an attorney and former Certified Public Accountant who operated Terra Management Company LLC, Strathmore Development Company Michigan LLC, and Terra Holding LLC, companies involved in real estate development and property management.

Chappelle allegedly failed to pay over to the IRS employment taxes that were withheld from the wages of the companies’ employees. After the IRS attempted to collect the unpaid taxes, from 2010 through 2019, Chappelle allegedly evaded the payment of more than $830,000 in unpaid taxes by making false statements to the IRS about his and his companies’ assets and income, failing to disclose his vacation house on Lake Michigan, and purchasing real property in nominee names instead of his own.

Chappelle is also charged with making false statements to IRS-CI agents during its criminal investigation. As alleged, Chappelle told investigators that he had not personally purchased any real estate during the last three years when in fact he had purchased both a condominium in East Lansing and a house in Powell, Ohio, during that time.

The indictment further alleges that Chappelle falsely told investigators that the condominium was for his son and paid for with student loan funds.

Chappelle Is Also Charged With Filing A Tax Return For Terra Holdings on Which He Falsely Claimed That The Company Had No Employees And Paid No Wages.

The indictment also charges that Chappelle made false statements and submitted fraudulent documents to a bank when refinancing his lake house mortgage.

If convicted, Chappelle faces a maximum term of imprisonment of five (5) years for tax evasion and making a false statement, three (3) years for filing a false document with the IRS, and thirty (30) years for bank fraud. He also faces a period of supervised release, restitution, and monetary penalties.

An indictment merely alleges that crimes have been committed. The defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

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