The owner of an oil and gas leasing business in Mississippi, was sentenced to 30 months in prison for filing false corporate tax returns.
The business owner refused to pay taxes on three million dollars earned through the business in 2008, so he and his tax preparer came up with two million dollars in false expenses to offset the money due. This caused the IRS a loss of $824,036.72.
During the trial, US attorneys presented evidence that after the business owner was indicted in 2015, the business earned close to another two million dollars in income between 2015 and 2021, but he failed to pay any taxes on these earnings. This caused the IRS another $700,000 in losses and $300,000 in interest and penalties.
In addition to the prison sentence, the business owner will serve one year of supervised release and pay $824,036.72 in restitution to the IRS.