A Michigan business owner pleaded guilty today to willful failure to collect and pay over employment taxes on behalf of his employees.
According to court documents and statements made in court, Yigal Ziv owned and operated Multinational Technologies, Inc. (MTI), a software developer based in Walled Lake. Ziv was responsible for filing MTI’s quarterly employment tax returns and collecting and paying to the IRS payroll taxes withheld from employees’ wages. From the first quarter of 2014 through the first quarter of 2018, Ziv collected approximately $691,000 in employment taxes from MTI’s employees, but did not file employment tax returns or pay the withheld taxes to the IRS. Even after learning of the IRS’s ongoing criminal investigation in May 2018, Ziv did not file MTI’s employment tax returns from the 4th quarter of 2019 through the 4th quarter of 2020 and did not pay over to the IRS approximately $199,000 in payroll taxes withheld from MTI’s employees. During the same period he did not pay over taxes to the IRS, Ziv caused MTI to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars for his personal benefit, including home mortgage payments, luxury auto lease payments and department store purchases.
Ziv is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 22, 2023, and faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison. He also faces a period of supervised release, monetary penalties and restitution. A federal district 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, U.S. Attorney Dawn N. Ison for the Eastern District of Michigan, and Acting Special Agent in Charge Charles Miller of IRS-Criminal Investigation Detroit Field Office made the announcement.
IRS Criminal-Investigation is investigating the case.
Trial Attorneys Kenneth C. Vert and George Meggali of the Justice Department’s Tax Division are prosecuting the case.
