LEXINGTON, Ky. – Ann Sonderman Giles, 56, and Lu Anne Wallace, 66, both of Lexington, were sentenced on Monday, before U.S. District Judge Karen Caldwell, to 30 months and 33 months, respectively, for conspiring to defraud the United States.
According to their guilty plea agreements, from January 2014 through July 2017, Wallace and Giles served as the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, respectively, for multiple healthcare-related companies registered in Kentucky. Giles and Wallace admitted to conspiring to defraud the United States, by failing to pay over IRS mandated trust fund taxes owed by the companies. Additionally, the companies had failed to pay over their required matching portions of Social Security and Medicare taxes. When the IRS moved to take civil enforcement actions, the Defendants facilitated the transfer of business operations to different LLCs, including changing bank accounts, while continuing to withhold payments of the IRS trust fund taxes that were due each quarter. In total, Giles and Wallace defrauded the United States out of approximately $1,595,726 in tax revenue.
Giles and Wallace pleaded guilty in June 2019.
Under federal law, Giles and Wallace must serve 85 percent of their prison sentences. Upon their release, they will be under the supervision of the U.S. Probation Office for ___ years, respectively.
Robert M. Duncan, Jr., United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky; Rod Owens, Special Agent-in-Charge, SSA Office of the Inspector General, Atlanta Field Division—Nashville; and Bryant Jackson, Special Agent in Charge, Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation; jointly announced the sentences.
The investigation was conducted by the Social Security Administration and IRS. The United States was represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Will Moynahan.