Five Plead Guilty for Conspiring to Obstruct IRS, Wire Fraud

Abingdon, VIRGINIA – Five Max Meadows, Virginia residents, who skimmed over $1 million in cash from a Wythe County store and then failed to pay taxes on that money, pled guilty today to federal conspiracy charges, Acting United States Attorney Rick A. Mountcastle announced.

Harold Hart, 80, Larry Dean Ball, 68, Mary Carroll Ball, 67, Katrina Rose Freeman, 42, and Gary Daniel Musick, 45, all of Max Meadows, waived their rights to be indicted and pled guilty today to Informations charging them each with one count of conspiracy to impair, impede or obstruct the lawful function of the Internal Revenue Service and to commit wire fraud. At sentencing, each defendant faces a maximum possible penalty of up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.

The defendants have agreed to pay, within 60 days of today’s hearing, over $440,000 in evaded federal taxes, interest and penalties, over $100,000 in evaded state taxes, interest, and penalties, over $40,000 in fines, and a forfeiture of over $29,000. The United States seized over $275,000 in cash from the defendants while executing search warrants in Wythe County in August 2016.

According to evidence presented at today’s hearing by Assistant United States Attorney Randy Ramseyer, The Old Fort Western Store in Wythe County was opened in the 1990s by Hart and Larry Ball and is operated as a retail western wear facility that sells western apparel, footwear, saddles and other items. Hart is the grandfather of Freeman and Musick. Larry Ball is the husband of Mary Ball and the father of Freeman.

Beginning in 2010, Hart, Larry Ball, Mary Ball, Freeman and Musick agreed that cash would be skimmed from the income of Old Fort, no sales tax would be paid on the skimmed cash, some of the skimmed cash would be used to pay certain employees a cash payroll in addition to their regular pay checks, some of the skimmed case would be used to pay Old Fort Partnership rent in addition to the rent check it received each month and the remainder of the skimmed cash would be disturbed to Hart, Larry and Mary Ball, Musick and Freeman and another person.

Between 2010 and 2016, the conspirators skimmed $1,121,458 in cash from Old Fort for the purpose of hiding this income from the Internal Revenue Service and the Virginia Department of Taxation.

United States District Judge James P. Jones accepted the defendants guilty pleas and scheduled sentencing hearings for September 18, 2017, in Abingdon.

The investigation of the case was conducted by the Bristol, Virginia, office of the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation. Assistant United States Attorney Randy Ramseyer is prosecuting the case for the United States.