Office of Public Affairs | Former Tennessee Mental Health Center Owner Charged with Employment Tax Crimes

A federal grand jury in Nashville returned an indictment yesterday charging a former business owner with willfully failing to account for and pay over employment taxes to the IRS.

According to the indictment, from at least 2011 through 2023, Mari Alexander, of Columbia, South Carolina, was the owner and president of Ross Behavioral Group, a mental health counseling center with multiple locations in middle Tennessee. Alexander controlled Ross Behavioral Group’s financial affairs and was responsible for withholding Social Security, Medicare and federal income taxes from employees’ wages and paying them over to the IRS. From at least 2015 through 2020, Alexander allegedly withheld these taxes from her employees’ wages, but did not fully pay the withheld taxes over to the IRS.

Each year, from at least 2015 through 2020, Alexander allegedly issued IRS Forms W-2, Wage and Tax Statements and paystubs to the employees that showed taxes taken out of their pay, which falsely implied that the withheld taxes were paid over to the IRS.

In total, Alexander is alleged to have caused a tax loss to the IRS of more than $1 million.

Alexander is charged with 11 counts of willfully failing to account for and pay over employment taxes. If convicted, she faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison on each count. She also faces a period of supervised release, restitution and monetary penalties. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stuart M. Goldberg of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and Acting U.S. Attorney Thomas J. Jaworski for the Middle District of Tennessee made the announcement.

IRS Criminal Investigation is investigating the case with assistance from the Social Security Administration’s Office of the Inspector General.

Trial Attorney Ashley J. Stein of the Tax Division and Assistant U.S. Attorney Mitchell T. Galloway for the Middle District of Tennessee are prosecuting the case.

An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.