Arkansas Tree Service Business Owner Sentenced to 20 Months for Tax Fraud
The owner of an Arkansas tree supply business has been sentenced to 20 months in prison for tax evasion after failing to report more than $3 million.
Carlos Gonzalez, 59, of Rogers, Arkansas, was convicted of filing false tax returns that understated his business income.
According to court records, Gonzalez, owner of Charley’s Tree Service, cashed more than $3 million in customer checks between 2014 and 2020.
Instead of depositing the money into his business bank account, Gonzalez withheld information about these cashed checks from his tax preparer, who relies on bank records to prepare his returns.
As a result, tax returns significantly underreported the gross receipts from Charley’s Tree Service, resulting in a tax loss of over $900,000 to the IRS.
In addition to the prison sentence, US District Court Judge Timothy Brooks of the Western District of Arkansas ordered Gonzalez to serve one year of supervised release and pay approximately $1.4 million in restitution to the United States and the State of Arkansas.
The case was announced by Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stuart M. Goldberg of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and US Attorney David Clay Fowlkes of the Western District of Arkansas.
The investigation was conducted by IRS Criminal Investigation, and the case was prosecuted by Attorneys Curtis Weidler and Wilson Stamm of the Tax Division, and Assistant US Attorney Carly Marshall of the Western District of Arkansas.
