William S. Thompson U.S. Attorney | U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of West Virginia
Christopher J. Smyth, a 49-year-old resident of Pineville, has been sentenced to three years in prison followed by three years of supervised release for tax-related offenses. Smyth was also ordered to pay $4,616,704.76 in restitution for failing to remit taxes withheld from employees' wages at his ambulance service and obstructing the IRS's collection efforts.
Court documents reveal that from 2012 through part of 2017, Smyth operated Stat EMS LLC in Pineville after a previous ambulance business he managed accrued significant tax liabilities and declared bankruptcy. He founded Stat EMS under a nominee owner but continued its operations similarly.
Smyth was responsible for withholding Social Security, Medicare, and income taxes from employees' wages at Stat EMS but did not fully pay these to the IRS. Instead, he used the funds for personal expenses and transferred money to businesses owned by friends and family. The IRS determined that approximately $3.3 million in taxes remained unpaid.
When the IRS assessed these unpaid taxes against Smyth personally, he misled an IRS revenue officer by claiming he had no personal bank accounts while depositing his paychecks into an account under a relative's name. He also falsely represented having no involvement with several other businesses despite having authority over their bank accounts.
Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Karen E. Kelly of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and Acting U.S. Attorney Lisa G. Johnston for the Southern District of West Virginia announced the sentencing.
“The jury found that Mr. Smyth failed to pay more than $4.6 million withheld from his employees’ wages and obstructed efforts to recover those withholdings,” stated Acting United States Attorney Lisa G. Johnston. “Ambulance services are critical to our communities, and Mr. Smyth repeatedly chose to jeopardize his by engaging in a 15-year scheme that was immense in its scope and scale."
The Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigations (IRS-CI) conducted the investigation into this case.
Assistant Chief David Zisserson and Trial Attorneys Kavitha Bondada and Andrew Ascencio of the Tax Division, along with Assistant U.S. Attorney Erik Goes for the Southern District of West Virginia, prosecuted the case.
A copy of this press release is available on the website of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of West Virginia.
