Ross County Business Owner Sentenced in Employment Tax Fruad Case

COLUMBUS, OHIO – Andrew J. Parish, 40, of Chillicothe, Ohio was sentenced to 18 months in prison, three years of supervised release, and was ordered to pay $341,336.46 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for failing to account for and pay over employment taxes to the IRS. Parish previously pleaded guilty to the aforementioned charge on May 5, 2015.

Carter M. Stewart, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio and Kathy A. Enstrom, Special Agent in Charge, Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation, Cincinnati Field Office announced the sentence handed down today by Senior U.S. District Judge James L. Graham.

According to court documents, between January 2009 and March 2009, Parish defrauded the IRS by failing to account for and pay over employment taxes.  Parish was the owner and operator of Axiom Consulting Group, LLC (“Axiom”) and was responsible for collecting, truthfully accounting for, and paying over the employment taxes to the IRS from the employees of Axiom.  Parish retained the services of an accounting firm that employed Certified Professional Accountants.  One of the accounting firm’s responsibilities was to process the payroll for Axiom based on figures provided to them by Parish.  The accounting firm was also retained to prepare Forms 941, Employer’s Quarterly Federal Tax Returns.

Parish did not follow the established payroll procedures and instead paid a majority of Axiom’s payroll by issuing the payroll checks himself to the Axiom employees.  These payroll checks did contain withholding amounts for the required employment taxes owed.  However, the amount of employment taxes that Parish withheld from his employees were never remitted to the IRS.  In addition, Parish never provided the true amount of the wages paid to the employees to the accounting firm, causing the preparation of an inaccurate Form 941 for the period January 1, 2009 through March 31, 2009.  In addition, it was Parish’s responsibility to transmit the Forms 941 to IRS, but he failed to do so.

The total tax loss to the IRS as a result of the non-payment of employment taxes was $341,336.46.

"IRS Criminal Investigation realizes the detrimental consequences of employment tax evasion.  It results in the loss of tax revenue to the United States government and the loss of future social security or Medicare benefits for the employees," stated Kathy A. Enstrom, Special Agent in Charges, IRS Criminal Investigation, Cincinnati Field Office.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Jessica H. Kim and was investigated by special agents of IRS-Criminal Investigation.