North Carolina Man Pleads Guilty to Tax Evasion and Possession of an Unregistered Firearm

A Kings Mountain, North Carolina, man, who set up straw companies to evade income taxes and used cash from his business to build an underground bunker, pleaded guilty today to tax evasion and possession of an unregistered firearm, announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Caroline D. Ciraolo, head of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and U.S. Attorney Jill Westmoreland Rose for the Western District of North Carolina.  

According to documents filed with the court, Reuben T. DeHaan ,44, owned a holistic medicine business, which he operated out of his residence in Kings Mountain under the names Health Care Ministries International Inc. and Get Well Stay Well.  DeHaan admitted that, with the help of others, he set up straw companies and opened bank accounts in the name of the straw companies to hide his income and assets from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).  DeHaan also admitted to dealing extensively in cash to evade the payment of income tax.  During the years 2008 through 2014, DeHaan earned more than $2.7 million in gross receipts from his holistic medicine business, but failed to file income tax returns for those years and evaded approximately $740,000 in income taxes due and owing.

In addition to the tax evasion charge, DeHaan also admitted to possessing a short barrel rifle and two silencers that were not registered to him in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record.

A sentencing date has not yet been scheduled.  DeHaan faces a statutory maximum sentence of five years in prison for the tax evasion charge and ten years in prison for the unregistered firearm charge, as well as a term of supervised release, and monetary penalties.

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Ciraolo and U.S. Attorney Rose commended special agents of IRS-Criminal Investigation and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, who conducted the investigation, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Savage and Trial Attorney Mara Strier of the Tax Division, who are prosecuting the case.

Additional information about the Tax Division and its enforcement efforts may be found on the division’s website.