Marysville drywaller charged with tax fraud
August 17, 2009 · 1:57 PM
The owner of Marysville-based Master’s Touch Drywall was charged today with stealing nearly all the sales tax he collected on jobs between 2003 and 2008.
Mark D. Standley, 53, was charged in Snohomish County Superior Court with multiple felony counts of first-degree theft, and filing false tax returns.
Standley is accused of reporting less than one half of one percent of more than $10 million in gross revenue he generated on drywall jobs between 2003 and 2008, and remitting to the state less than $3,000 of the nearly $855,000 in sales tax he collected from customers on those projects.
The charges were brought by the Financial Crimes Unit of the Attorney General’s Office at the request of the Washington State Department of Revenue.
An investigation initiated by the Department into the company’s business activities found that it had filed multiple tax returns indicating no business activity when in fact it had generated substantial income, possibly even more than the $10.1 million that has been identified so far.
Standley’s alleged thefts were so large and carefully planned that they constitute a major economic offense, according to the charging papers. If he is convicted of such aggravating circumstances, a judge could impose a sentence of up to 10 years in prison and a $20,000 fine.
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