KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A Lafayette County, Missouri, business owner pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court to failing to pay almost $2 million in payroll and employment taxes over a four-year period.
The business owner, 59-year-old Sandra Eller, waived her right to a grand jury and pleaded guilty to the charge of "failure to truthfully account for and pay over to the Internal Revenue Service the federal income taxes and payroll taxes withheld and owing to the government," according to a U.S. Department of Justice press release.
Eller owned and operated three medical billing and claims processing companies that operated in Oak Grove and Grain Valley. The businesses were Medical Revenue Solutions LLC, which had 20 employees and operated until 2017, Claims Professionally Reviewed, which had 50 employees and operated until 2016, and Soerries Coding and Institute, Inc, which was a merger between the two other companies and operated from 2016 through 2019.
"By pleading guilty, Eller admitted that she willfully failed to deposit the Federal Insurance Contributions Act and Medicare (FICA) taxes and income taxes that were withheld from her employees’ wages," the release said. "Eller also admitted that she did not pay the employer portion of FICA."
According to the release, Eller withheld in total $939,294 in FICA taxes and income taxes 18 different times during the first quarter of 2016 through the fourth quarter of 2019. She also withheld payroll taxes from her employees' paychecks and did not forward them to the government, instead keeping them for her business.
"In addition, Eller owed the employer’s portion of the FICA taxes, unpaid federal unemployment taxes, employment tax due for the third quarter of 2019, and state tax withholdings that were not paid over, all of which total $1,051,699," the release said. "In total, Eller’s criminal conduct resulted in a tax loss of $1,990,993."
A sentencing hearing has not been scheduled, but Eller could face up to five years in federal prison without parole.
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