A federal grand jury in Birmingham, Alabama, has indicted a Shelby County chiropractor on charges of tax evasion, filing false tax returns, and obstructing the IRS.
According to the indictment, Gary Forrest Edwards of Shelby County owned Hoover Health & Wellness Center. In 2015, Edwards allegedly agreed to file missing income tax returns for 2009 through 2013 with the IRS. The indictment claims that despite accurately reporting millions of dollars in income on these returns, Edwards did not pay any of the $2.4 million in taxes he reported he owed.
The indictment further alleges that from 2015 until 2023, when the IRS began efforts to collect the unpaid taxes, Edwards attempted to impede these efforts by transferring assets to his wife, submitting false information about his assets to the IRS, filing false tax returns, and making false statements to IRS investigators. He is also accused of filing documents with a local court falsely claiming that Notices of Federal Tax Lien filed against him by the IRS had been terminated.
If convicted, Edwards faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison for the tax evasion charge and three years in prison for each charge of obstruction and filing a false tax return. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stuart M. Goldberg of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and U.S. Attorney Prim F. Escalona for the Northern District of Alabama announced the indictment.
IRS Criminal Investigation is handling the case's investigation. Trial Attorney Isaiah Boyd of the Tax Division and Assistant U.S. Attorney Ted Canter for the Northern District of Alabama are prosecuting it.
An indictment is merely an allegation; all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.