Placerville business owner sentenced for filing false tax returns

Thomas Stringfellow of Placerville was sentenced today to 18 months in prison and order to pay $687,182 in restitution for willfully making false tax returns.

The 55-year old underreported his business income on tax returns by more than $1.1 million from 2006 to 2010 according to court documents. During that time he was also found guilty of underreporting his personal income by more than $1,000,000.

Stringfellow owned New Horizon Painting, and rather than depositing all of the business checks into the appropriate accounts, he cashed some of the checks and did not report those amounts as income. In total, Stringfellow’s underreporting of his business income and his personal income led to a tax loss of more than $687,000.

This case was the product of an investigation by the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation. Assistant United States Attorney Jean M. Hobler prosecuted the case.