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Middletown business owner pleads guilty to income tax evasion

Posted at 10:24 AM, Jun 11, 2020
and last updated 2020-06-11 12:12:25-04

MIDDLETOWN, Ohio — A man who owns a business in Middletown pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to charges of income tax evasion, according to officials.

According to the Internal Revenue Service, David Fraley, 53, didn't pay his income taxes between 2009 and 2012, resulting in a tax loss of $337,213.

"David Fraley took extensive measures in an effort to hide his income and to defeat his tax liabilities," Bryant Jackson, Special Agent in Charge of the Cincinnati Field Office of the IRS, said. "The IRS was not fooled and this degree of trickery, dishonesty and deceit will be punished.”

The IRS said Fraley tried to hide his income by transferring his income ownership to his brother and his business. Then, Fraley told his contractor not to issue any income in his name but to issue it in his business name.

The IRS then issued levies against Fraley's business accounts; however, the deposits stopped flowing into this business account and went into his brother's account instead. Fraley called his contractor a second time then and said to stop the deposits all together.

Fraley has not been sentenced yet, but income tax evasion carries a maximum of five years in prison plus a $250,000 fine.