DOJ: Businesswoman Pleads Guilty to Not Paying Employment Taxes

OHIO GLASS COMPANY OWNER PLEADS GUILTY TO NOT
PAYING EMPLOYMENT TAXES

Also Admitted Filing False Tax Returns and Failing to File Returns

TUESDAY, APRIL 30, 2019

WASHINGTON — The owner of a Greenville, Ohio, glass company pleaded guilty today to failing to truthfully account for and pay over employment taxes, announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard E. Zuckerman of the Justice Department's Tax Division.

Gail Cooper, 64, of Greenville, was the sole owner of Greenville Architectural Glass LLC (GAG) during the years 2007 through 2015. GAG primarily installed glass in commercial and residential buildings for clients in Ohio. GAG paid wages to its employees during the years 2013 through 2015. As the person responsible for GAG's finances, Cooper was required to withhold federal income taxes and Social Security and Medicare taxes from employees' wages and pay those amounts to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Cooper was also required to file quarterly employment tax returns with the IRS. Although Cooper caused GAG to withhold taxes from employees' wages, she neither paid those amounts over to the IRS, nor filed the required quarterly returns for the first quarter of 2013 through the second quarter of 2015. Cooper also failed to pay over to the IRS unemployment taxes.

As part of her plea agreement, Cooper also admitted that she filed false individual income tax returns for the years 2008 – 2010 on which she understated GAG's gross receipts and overstated its expenses.

Cooper also admitted in plea documents that she willfully failed to file income tax returns for the years 2011 through 2014, which would have reported her income from GAG and other sources. Cooper paid a professional tax return preparer to complete returns for those years, but Cooper never filed them.

U.S. District Judge Thomas M. Rose set sentencing for Aug. 2. Cooper faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Cooper admitted that her conduct caused a loss to the government of more than $500,000, and agreed to pay restitution to the IRS.

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Zuckerman thanked special agents of IRS Criminal Investigation, who investigated the case, and Trial Attorneys Melissa S. Siskind and Thomas F. Koelbl of the Tax Division, who are prosecuting the case. Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Zuckerman also thanked the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Ohio for their assistance in this matter.

Additional information about the Tax Division and its enforcement efforts may be found on the division's website at www.justice.gov/tax.