6 Plead Guilty To Major Tax Crimes After Local IRS Investigations

Six people from Green Country recently pled guilty to major tax crimes, with some involving stealing millions of dollars from businesses.

Tax day is now one week away and the IRS said most people pay their taxes, but some will lie on purpose to avoid paying and to cover up criminal activity.

The IRS Criminal Investigations and US Attorneys Office of the Northern District of Oklahoma said they aren't going after the people who make a minor mistake on their W-2. They are going after the people who try to cheat the system and who create tons of victims by doing so.

Christopher Altemus is the special agent in charge of 70 IRS criminal investigators who work high profile tax crimes in Texas, Arkansas and Oklahoma.

"I think a lot of times people look at tax crimes as victimless crimes,” said SAC Altemus. “'It is just the government's money and who is really being impacted by this?' But as you see in a lot of these cases, those embezzled funds are coming from a business owner, those employment taxes that aren't being paid are in many ways creating an unfair advantage for that business over someone who is legitimate."

Phillip Albert, from Tulsa, pleaded guilty to not paying more than $1,000,000 in income taxes.

Christine Fletcher admitted to embezzling around $2,000,000 from her employer by using an account in the name of the victim's dead wife.

Paul Bowker admitted to not paying $3.5 million in income tax withholdings while working as the CFO for a nonprofit.

Tracy Whyburn admitted to embezzling $600,000 from a healthcare company where he worked.

Donald White, from Adair, pleaded guilty to not paying employment taxes for his business.

A Jenks woman, Lauren Owen, pleaded guilty to embezzling nearly $1,000,000 from her employer, then used the money to buy cars and a yacht.

"What happens with small businesses especially is if individuals are not paying their payroll taxes, they end up having an unfair competitive advantage against the small business down the street doing everything right,” said U.S. Attorney Clint Johnson of the Northern District of Oklahoma.

Altemus said his team investigates crimes involving money, and by following the money, they can dismantle the whole operation.

"Like anything else, any time there is new technology and new ways of transferring money, there's always a criminal element that's finding way to exploit that,” said Altemus.