Charleston, WV (WOAY) – A Wyoming County business owner is sentenced to prison on tax charges.
49-year-old Christopher J. Smyth of Pineville, WV was sentenced to serve three years in federal prison followed by three years of supervised release on March 3, 2025, and to pay restitution in the amount of $4,616,704.76 for not paying the taxes withheld from employees’ wages at an ambulance service he operated and obstructing the IRS’ efforts to collect those taxes.
In a news release from The United States Department of Justice, Acting United States Attorney Lisa G. Johnston said: “Ambulance services are critical to our communities, and Mr. Smyth repeatedly chose to jeopardize his by engaging in a 15-year scheme that was immense in its scope and scale. The sentence in this case serves to deter others who seek to break the law at the expense of the American taxpayer.”
According to court documents, from 2012 through part of 2017, Smyth operated Stat EMS LLC, an ambulance service located in Pineville. Smyth created Stat EMS after a previous ambulance business he operated accrued millions of dollars of employment tax liabilities and filed for bankruptcy. Smyth founded Stat EMS in the name of a nominee owner but continued operating the business in the same manner as before.
The IRS determined that Stat EMS accrued approximately $3.3 million in unpaid taxes.
