The owner of a northeastern Ohio trucking company has been sentenced to 30 months in prison for income tax evasion.
Alice Martin of Louisville, Ohio, pleaded guilty in August to various income tax evasion charges. The charges against her involved avoiding payment of income taxes related to her trucking company, Martin Logistics which was based near Canton, Ohio.
Martin, 66, also is required to pay approximately $1.98 million in restitution. She was sentenced earlier this week by U.S. District Judge Donald Nugent of the Northern District of Ohio.
The 30 months are more than the minimum 24 months requested by the U.S. Attorney’s office.
According to the indictment handed down in May 2024, Martin Logistics was owned by Alice Martin and her husband, but Alice Martin “controlled all business operations.”
Defense Department contractor
Martin Logistics, according to the indictment, was authorized to both haul and broker freight for the U.S. Department of Defense. Most of the freight that was hauled went between the Defense Logistics Agency’s facility in New Cumberland, PA, to a Martin-owned leased trucking yard in nearby Mechanicsburg. From there, the freight might be moved to various trucks for movement to the final destination, either on a Martin Logistics trucks or to another carrier that Martin Logistics’ brokerage operations had hired.
According to the indictment, around 2012 to 2013, “Martin Logistics had financial problems…burdened with tax debt…for tax years 2011 through 2013.”
The IRS sought to collect the debts, including filing liens against Martin Logistics. The company also was sued by several outside parties. “The reputation of Martin Logistics declined, after which any carriers would no longer haul freight brokered by Martin Logistics because (it) was not promptly paying for services rendered,” the indictment said.
Making the company disappear
The indictment spells out a scheme in which the goal was, as the indictment notes, to “(create) the appearance that Martin Logistics had no revenues and no employees.” It was successful enough for a time that the IRS concluded the tax debt was “uncollectable” and it closed the case.
But the company was not dead, instead masked through shadow companies. The intention was to continue operating through those other firms.
As the U.S. Attorney’s office said in the press release announcing the sentence, “The tax evasion scheme consisted of a plan to phase out the company after it became burdened with tax debt as a strategy to avoid paying taxes to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).”
The companies set up to advance that scheme were not filing income tax returns, the indictment said, except for an occasional filing of an IRS 1040 form. The indictment spells out a long list of tax-evading practices Martin engaged in through her various companies.
Unreported taxable income in the indictment was approximately $3.67 million, with an “evaded” tax bill of about $1.17 million.
She persisted
The U.S. Attorney’s pre-sentencing memo was not kind to Martin. It said even after she had pleaded guilty, she engaged in “additional acts of tax evasion.” These included trying to hide assets from a U.S probation officer, and refusing to disclose documents sought by the government.
What Martin was indicted for was not her first attempt at tax evasion, the pre-sentencing memo said.
“(Martin) has an appalling history of willful defiance with federal and state tax laws that extends back at least four decades,” the report said. “Although it’s difficult to construct a comprehensive history, the investigation uncovered federal tax liens filed against the Martins for failing to file personal taxes (between 1989-1992.)”
“To say that (Martin) is routinely delinquent in filing tax returns and paying her taxes is an understatement that fails to fully appreciate the lifelong cat and mouse game (she) has played with the tax authorities,” the memo adds.
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