Warren County, Kentucky, Construction Company Owner Sentenced To 24 Months For Income Tax Evasion

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – The owner of a Warren County, Kentucky construction company was sentenced in U.S. District Court yesterday by Senior Judge Thomas B. Russell to 24 months in prison and was ordered to pay $571,000 in restitution for tax evasion, announced David J. Hale, United States Attorney for the Western District of Kentucky.

Darrell Mathis, age 48, owner of Tri-State Construction, pleaded guilty before United States Magistrate Judge James Moyer on April 22, 2013 to five counts of income tax evasion due for the tax years 1999 through 2001 and 2005 through 2009. The returns were filed with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

According to the plea agreement, from June 2004 until December 2011, Mathis evaded payment of $177,634 in federal income taxes due for the tax years 1999 through 2001. During this time period, among other things, he falsely submitted an IRS Offer-in-Compromise Form 656 in which he concealed his ownership and control of his personal assets, including vehicles and boats, and his business, Tri-State Construction and the company’s bank accounts. Throughout this period he owned and operated Tri-State construction but concealed his ownership and income from the IRS by placing it in the name of a nominee and directing IRS W-2 Forms not be filed in his name. For the tax years 2005 through 2008 Mathis received approximately $1,045,327 in income from Tri-State construction that he concealed from the IRS by not reporting the income on his federal income tax returns. The resulting additional tax due and owing for 2005 through 2009, is $383,558. Mathis knowingly signed his 2005 through 2008 federal income tax returns under the penalty of perjury.

The tax evasion counts to which Mathis pleaded guilty also charged that in December 2007 Mathis purchased a piece of real estate at Cooper Dearing Road for $144,900 in the name of a nominee to conceal the purchase from the IRS. In January 2008, he sold this piece of real estate for $235,000 and purchased property located at 121 Timber Ridge Court, Alvaton, Kentucky, again in the name of a nominee. Further, in 2009 and 2010, Mathis caused the owner of Southside Auto Sales to file liens on his vehicles to conceal his equity in them from the IRS. Lastly, in January 2007, Mathis purchased a Keystone camper, titling the camper in a nominee name to conceal his ownership.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Bryan Calhoun and Joshua Judd and was investigated by the IRS, Division of Criminal Investigation.