ATLANTA — An Atlanta business owner and his company’s co-director have both pled guilty to a count of filing false tax returns, U.S. Justice Department officials announced.
According to officials, Ronald S. Zieve, owner of Hair Restoration Specialists, Inc., and Marshall Boyd, the co-director, were accused of failing to report $3.2 million, and $790,000 in income, respectively, since 2018.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Georgia provided recent examples, saying Zieve had earned more than $1 million in 2020 but reported his other income as just over $100,000.
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Officials said Zieve and Boyd had not filed accurate tax records since as far back as 2016.
A search warrant executed at the HRS office reviewed business, bank and tax records, according to USDOJ, showing that Zieve had “deliberately concealed his actual income from the IRS in a variety of ways.”
U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan said Zieve did not properly report earnings from HRS for tax years 2017 through 2021.
Additionally, Buchanan said in a statement that Zieve filed an IRS-1040 form for tax year 2020 that falsely reported his “other income” as $107,070 when, in fact, Zieve knew he had earned more than $1 million in other income in March 2021.
“These defendants behaved as if our tax laws did not apply to them,” Buchanan said. “People who cheat on their taxes, file false returns, or fail to pay taxes owed are subject to investigation and prosecution.”
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While investigating the tax discrepancies, investigators learned Zieve had paid Boyd hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash commissions, which Boyd never reported to the Internal Revenue Service, according to USDOJ.
“In February 2021, for example, Boyd filed an IRS-1040 form for the tax year 2020 that falsely reported ‘other income’ of ‘$0′ when, in fact, Boyd knew that he had earned approximately $191,000 in other income,” officials said. “As a result of Boyd failing to report approximately $790,000 in income, he caused a tax loss to the United States of approximately $266,000.”
Zieve and Boyd each entered guilty pleas to one count of filing fraudulent tax returns, with sentencing scheduled for March 2024.
“Filing false tax return documents to hide income is stealing from the U.S. government,” Demetrius Hardeman, Acting Special Agent in Charge, IRS Criminal Investigation, Atlanta Field Office, said. “On behalf of the honest, law-abiding taxpayers, IRS Criminal Investigation, the Department of Justice and other law enforcement agencies will continue investigating and holding individuals accountable who willfully shirk their tax responsibilities to honestly report their income.”
The case is still under investigation by the IRS.
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