Former Tech CEO Pleads Guilty to $14M Payroll Tax Fraud

Former Tech CEO Pleads Guilty to $14M Payroll Tax Fraud.

Former CEO of a start-up internet business and citizen of New Hampshire Andrew Park entered a guilty plea to charges of omitting personal tax filings and dodging nearly $14 million in payroll taxes. Park, 49, of Bedford, was in charge of overseeing the management of federal, state, and local tax payments as well as completing employment tax reports on a quarterly basis for the business.

Park took income taxes, Social Security, and Medicare from employees’ paychecks between the company’s founding in 2014 and the third quarter of 2021, but failed to send these taxes to the IRS as required by law. Park neglected to pay the required taxes even after employing a payroll provider that sent him alerts on a regular basis regarding unpaid taxes and after learning about inconsistencies in Social Security benefits from a worker.  He also neglected to pay the company’s share of Social Security and Medicare taxes.

Furthermore, despite receiving an annual salary of almost $250,000, Park failed to file his personal tax returns between 2013 and 2020. The IRS lost more than $14 million in taxes as a result of this failure, and state and local tax authorities also suffered losses.

November 14 is when Park is expected to be sentenced. For willfully neglecting to account for and pay payroll taxes, he may spend up to five years in prison; for not filing tax forms, he may also serve an extra year. Restitution to the IRS and other tax authorities, fines, and supervised release are possible further punishments. A federal district court judge will decide on the final sentence after taking the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other relevant facts into account.

Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stuart M. Goldberg of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and U.S. Attorney Jane E. Young for the District of New Hampshire announced Park’s guilty plea. IRS Criminal Investigation is looking into the case, and Assistant Chief Eric Powers of the Tax Division and Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Hunter for the District of New Hampshire are handling the prosecution.