A Lake County man has been sentenced to federal prison for failing to pay employment taxes 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 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 sentence was imposed on December 3.
Court documents show that Roberts served as executive director and co-owner of Progressive Alternatives, an in-home care company providing services for individuals with developmental disabilities in Lake and Ashtabula Counties. The business was initially purchased by Roberts’s spouse, Larry Keith Gildersleeve III, 43, also of Mentor, in February 2011.
Federal investigators determined that while payroll checks issued by Roberts included correct tax withholdings and employees received W-2 forms reflecting those amounts, the business did not file W-2 forms or submit quarterly payments to the IRS. The issue came to light when an employee preparing for retirement in 2017 discovered that required payroll taxes had not been paid over to the IRS.
Gildersleeve previously pleaded guilty to eight counts of failure to account for and pay over taxes. He was sentenced 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 (IRS-CI) Division. Assistant United States Attorneys Erica D. Barnhill and Brett S. Hammond prosecuted the case for the Northern District of Ohio.
“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 provided about the agency. “IRS-CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code, obtaining a 90% federal conviction rate.” The agency operates through 19 field offices across the U.S., as well as 14 attaché posts abroad.
