An Arkansas man has been sentenced to 20 months in prison for tax fraud. Carlos Gonzalez, aged 59 and residing in Rogers, was found guilty of filing a false individual income tax return. The court documents revealed that Gonzalez operated a tree-trimming and removal business named Charley’s Tree Service.
Between 2014 and 2020, Gonzalez cashed over $3 million in customer checks instead of depositing them into his business account. He was aware that his tax return preparer used the bank records to prepare returns and did not inform the preparer about the cashed checks. This led to underreporting of gross receipts from his business, resulting in a tax loss exceeding $900,000 to the IRS.
In addition to the prison term, U.S. District Court Judge Timothy Brooks ordered Gonzalez to serve one year of supervised release and pay approximately $1.4 million in restitution to both the United States and the State of Arkansas.
The announcement was made by Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stuart M. Goldberg of the Justice Department’s Tax Division along with U.S. Attorney David Clay Fowlkes for the Western District of Arkansas.
The case was investigated by IRS Criminal Investigation. It was prosecuted by Trial Attorneys Curtis Weidler and Wilson Stamm from the Tax Division, alongside Assistant U.S. Attorney Carly Marshall for the Western District of Arkansas.