Rebecca C. Lutzko United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio | U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio
A Lake County man has been sentenced to federal prison for failing to pay employment taxes owed to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Michael Roberts, 38, of Mentor, Ohio, received a 24-month prison sentence from U.S. District Judge John R. Adams after being convicted in April on charges of failure to account for and pay taxes. In addition to his prison term, Roberts was ordered to serve three years of supervised release and pay $322,718.56 in restitution. The sentencing took place on December 3.
Court documents show that Roberts served as executive director and co-owner of Progressive Alternatives, an in-home care business that provided services for individuals with developmental disabilities in Lake and Ashtabula Counties. The business was originally purchased by Roberts’s spouse, Larry Keith Gildersleeve III, 43, also of Mentor, in February 2011.
Investigators found that while payroll checks issued by Roberts included the correct withholdings from employees’ wages—reflected on the W-2 forms given to employees—the business did not actually file those W-2 forms or submit quarterly tax payments as required. The issue came to light when an employee preparing for retirement in 2017 discovered that Progressive Alternatives had not paid the necessary payroll taxes to the IRS.
Gildersleeve previously pleaded guilty to eight counts related to failure to account for and pay over taxes. He was sentenced earlier to 24 months in prison, three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $692,697.50 in restitution.
The case was investigated by the IRS-Criminal Investigation Division (IRS-CI), which is responsible for probing financial crimes such as tax fraud and money laundering across its field offices nationwide and international attaché posts.
Assistant United States Attorneys Erica D. Barnhill and Brett S. Hammond prosecuted the case for the Northern District of Ohio.
"The IRS-CI is the law enforcement arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more," according to information about the agency's role provided by officials. "IRS-CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code."
