Audiologist Pleads Guilty To Tax Fraud

SAN FRANCISCO – Michael Ryan Trythall pleaded guilty to tax evasion today, announced United States Attorney Melinda Haag and Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation, Acting Special Agent in Charge Thomas McMahon.

In pleading guilty, Trythall, 37, of Los Angeles, a professional audiologist, admitted to embezzling more than $750,000 between 2009 and 2012 from his employer at the time, a San Francisco audiology practice. During that period, Trythall performed bookkeeping services for his employer, and had access to the business’s financial records. He was authorized to print business checks for others to sign, but not to sign or issue checks on his own. Nevertheless, Trythall issued business checks payable to himself, forged the signature of an authorized signer onto the checks, and then deposited them into his personal bank accounts. Trythall also caused credit card payments made by clients to the business to be misdirected to an account he controlled. Trythall used the money he embezzled to pay for vacations and shopping at luxury retailers.

Trythall concealed his embezzlement by omitting payments to himself from the business’s books, making false entries into the business’s books, and failing to disclose his embezzlement, even when confronted by others. Trythall did not pay income taxes on any of the money he embezzled for calendar years 2009 through 2011, resulting in tax due and owing of over $230,000.

Trythall was charged by information on Sept. 25, 2014, with three counts of tax evasion, and pleaded guilty to one county. Trythall’s sentencing hearing is scheduled for March 11, 2015, at 2:30 p.m., before the Honorable Edward M. Chen, United States District Court Judge, in San Francisco. The maximum statutory penalty for each count of tax evasion, in violation of 26 U.S.C. § 7201, is five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael G. Pitman is prosecuting the case. The prosecution is the result of an investigation by the IRS, Criminal Investigation.

(Trythall information )