An Alabama chiropractor has been sentenced to more than six years in prison for tax evasion and interfering with the administration of internal revenue laws, according to an announcement from U.S. Attorney Prim F. Escalona.
Gary Forrest Edwards, 65, of Maylene, Alabama, received a sentence of 78 months in prison from U.S. District Court Judge Anna M. Manasco. Edwards pleaded guilty during his trial in Birmingham after evidence was presented by the United States.
Court documents and trial evidence showed that between 2015 and 2023, Edwards tried to avoid paying over $2.5 million in income taxes and obstructed efforts by the IRS to collect those taxes.
Edwards owned Hoover Health & Wellness Center. In 2015, he agreed to file delinquent income tax returns for the years 2009 through 2013 and later filed a return for 2017. Although he reported millions of dollars in taxable income on these returns, he did not pay the more than $2.5 million in taxes owed or nearly $1.9 million in penalties and interest assessed by the IRS.
According to court records, Edwards admitted to several actions intended to evade payment and hinder collection efforts: "concealing financial accounts he owned from the IRS, transferring funds from accounts he owned to accounts in only his spouse’s name, filing false court documents to terminate federal tax liens against his property, lying to IRS criminal investigators, and more."
The case was investigated by IRS-Criminal Investigation. Prosecution was handled by Tax Division Trial Attorney Isaiah Boyd and Assistant United States Attorney Allison Garnett.
