The former president and executive of Pelco Structural LLC, Phillip Barry Albert, 63, pleaded guilty to $1M tax evasion. From 2014 to 2019 serving as president of this Oklahoma Steel Pole Manufacturer, he instructed a vendor (third-party payroll company) to classify payments of over $2.6M as reimbursements instead of income in order to evade federal income tax and the income was not reported on his Forms W-2.
The total loss caused to the IRS is $1,000,232. As said by the United States Department of Justice in a press release on March 13, 2023, “Albert filed individual income tax returns for 2014 through 2019 that did not report the payments, totaling $2,615,750, thus causing a tax loss to the IRS of $1,000,232.”
As said by his former accountant, Albert would “write on a scrap piece of paper whatever amount he wanted me to submit as a special reimbursement for him.”
Albert resigned from the company in April 2019, after an accusation that he embezzled a minimum of $7.4M from the company. He now faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison, in addition to monetary penalties, a period of supervised release, and restitution, which will be determined by a federal district court judge.
The case is investigated by the IRS-Criminal Investigation and the FBI.
Pelco Structural’s products are steel pole assemblies that are used in the electricity grid infrastructure, traffic signals, and lightning for traffic and sports, as well as a variety of assemblies regarding communication technologies.
