The Department of Justice announced that Phillip Barry Albert, the former president of a steel pole manufacturing company in Oklahoma, was sentenced to 30 months in prison for evading over $1 million in income taxes.
According to court documents and statements made in court, from 2014 to 2019, Albert was President of Pelco Structural LLC. During that period, Albert directed Pelco’s outside payroll service company to pay him over $2.6 million of Pelco’s funds, which should have been treated as income to him.
Albert, however, instructed that the payroll company falsely characterize the payments as reimbursements rather than income, so that the payroll company would not withhold federal income taxes or report the payments as wages on Albert’s Forms W-2. Albert then did not report the payments on his income tax returns for those years.
Albert caused a tax loss to the IRS of $1,000,232.
In addition to his prison sentence, U.S. District Judge Terence Kern for the Northern District of Oklahoma ordered Albert to serve one year of supervised release and to pay approximately $1,000,232 in restitution to the United States and $2,615,750 in restitution to Pelco Industries Inc., which is the former parent company of Pelco.
IRS Criminal Investigation and the FBI are investigating the case.
