Business Owner Pleads Guilty To Tax Charge

BUFFALO, N.Y.-U.S. Attorney Trini E. Ross announced today that Julie Dotton, 51, of Orchard Park, NY, pleaded guilty to willful failure to truthfully account for and pay over employment taxes before U.S. District Judge John L. Sinatra, Jr. The charge carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison. 

Assistant U.S. Attorney Russell T. Ippolito, Jr., who is handling the case, stated that Dotton was the President, CEO, and majority shareholder of Applied Sciences Group (ASG), a technology business that largely developed software. She was also the founding partner of the partnership KRP Holdings (KRP). By law, businesses must account for income tax, social security tax, and a hospital insurance (Medicare) tax in the wages of individual employees, equal to a percentage of the wages earned by the employee. These taxes are commonly referred to as “trust fund taxes” because employers hold these taxes in trust for the government. For all of 2018 and three quarters of 2019, Dotton failed to pay over the trust fund taxes to the IRS on behalf of the employees of ASG and KRP, resulting in a loss of approximately $1,100,837 to IRS. Dotton also admitted that she obtained a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan from the federal government in the amount of $117,277, to which she was not entitled. 

The plea is the result of an investigation by the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation Division, under the direction of Special Agent-In-Charge Thomas Fattorusso.

 Sentencing is scheduled for December 20, 2023, at 9:00 a.m. before Judge Sinatra.

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