August 19, 2016

A Germantown, Tennessee, resident and business owner was sentenced to one year in prison and ordered to pay more than $10 million in restitution for failing to pay over employment taxes to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), announced the Justice Department’s Tax Division and U.S. Attorney Edward L. Stanton III of the Western District of Tennessee. According to court documents, Larry Thornton, 67, was the majority owner, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Software Earnings, Inc. (SEI), a Memphis company that produced and installed check processing. Thornton was also the 100 percent owner, CEO and president of First Touch Payment Solutions, LLC (First Touch), a Memphis company that provided merchant services for credit card processing. Thornton, as CEO and president of SEI and First Touch, had ultimate and final decision-making authority regarding SEI’s and First Touch’s business activities and had authority to exercise significant control over SEI’s financial affairs. Thornton admitted that he was responsible for collecting, accounting for, and paying over to the IRS federal income taxes and Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) taxes that were withheld from the wages of SEI and First Touch’s employees. DOJ

Tagged in: Employment Tax Fraud, Tax Fraud,