DOJ: Pennsylvania Man Charged With Tax Evasion

Chester County Man Charged With Tax Evasion For Second Time

The defendant was previously convicted on similar charges in 2016 and has avoided paying most of the $5 million in court-ordered restitution in that case

Friday, June 11, 2021

PHILADELPHIA — Acting United States Attorney Jennifer Arbittier Williams announced that Michael Goldner, 51, of Paoli, PA, was charged by Indictment on a charge of tax evasion. The defendant made his initial appearance in federal court this afternoon.

The Indictment alleges that Mr. Goldner accrued a tax liability of approximately $1,858,740 for the years 2013 through 2017, and that beginning in 2016 he engaged in a scheme to evade the payment of those taxes. Goldner's tax evasion scheme involved having his employer make payments to Goldner's wife for payment of personal expenses, including the mortgage on the house where his family resided, rent for an apartment where he resided, service for his pool, dance classes for his daughter, and a vacation for his family. The defendant also had his employer make some payments toward a nearly $5 million restitution judgment that Goldner owed from a 2016 wire fraud and tax evasion conviction in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. The Indictment further alleges that Goldner failed to report this additional income on his 2016 and 2017 tax returns.

“Goldner's alleged scheme to hide his true income victimized honest taxpayers in two ways: first, by evading more than $1.8 million in tax liability to the IRS, and second, by avoiding having to make additional payments towards the large balance (more than $4 million) he still owed in court-ordered restitution from his previous conviction on similar charges,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Williams. “Clearly this defendant has not learned that you cannot outrun the IRS. Anyone who is contemplating similar fraud should view this case as a warning that it will not succeed.”

“If you keep breaking the law, the FBI and our partners will keep coming after you,” said Michael J. Driscoll, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI's Philadelphia Division. “Willfully defrauding the government and cheating honest taxpayers isn't 'creative accounting.' It's a federal crime.”

“The American tax system provides government services critical to our people,” said Joleen Simpson, Acting Special Agent in Charge of IRS Criminal Investigation. “Every time someone cheats the tax system, the burden of providing vital services increases on taxpayers who pay their fair share.”

If convicted, the defendant faces a maximum possible sentence of five years in prison, a $250,000 fine, a three years period of supervised release, and a $100 special assessment.

The case was investigated by the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney David J. Ignall.

An indictment, information, or criminal complaint is an accusation. A defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

Updated June 11, 2021