Second Garrard County Man Sentenced to 60 months for Tax Fraud

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Warren Griffin, II, 50, of Lancaster, was sentenced to 60 months in federal prison Wednesday by United States District Judge Karen K. Caldwell for taking part in a $15 million employment tax fraud scheme.

Griffin will begin serving his new sentence after he finishes a 37-month term, from a 2018 conviction in the Southern District of Illinois, for being a felon in possession of a firearm.  He must also pay the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) $2.8 million in restitution.  Upon release from prison, Griffin will be on supervised release for three years.

According to his plea agreement, Griffin recruited and paid associates to open staffing companies and bank accounts, whose primary purpose was to hide from the IRS the fact that businesses run by Griffin and his co-defendant, Clarence Michel, Jr., had failed to pay $14,671,184 in owed federal payroll taxes.  Griffin obtained $2,118,584 of that money.  During this time, Griffin also underpaid his personal federal income taxes by $700,428.

Michel had previously pleaded guilty and been sentenced to 71 months in federal prison and ordered to pay over $19 million in restitution.

Robert M. Duncan, Jr., United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky, and William Chung, Special Agent in Charge, Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation, jointly announced the sentence. 

The investigation was conducted by the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation.  The United States was represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Dmitriy Slavin.

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