Date: December 17, 2024 Contact: newsroom@ci.irs.gov SAN JOSE — Shane Brightpath Mike was sentenced today to 12 months and one day in federal prison for failing to pay over employment taxes withheld from the wages of his company’s employees. The Honorable Beth Labson Freeman, U.S. District Judge, imposed the sentence, following Mike’s guilty plea. According to court documents and statements made in court, Mike of Bishop, Calif., was the owner, president, and chief operating officer of Excel Behavioral Services, Inc., a business located in Campbell, Calif., that provided home care to persons with disabilities. Mike was responsible for withholding Social Security, Medicare, and income taxes from his employees’ wages and paying over those funds to the IRS. For fourth quarter of 2014 through the third quarter of 2015, Mike did not pay any of the withheld taxes to the IRS. And for the third quarter of 2014, Mike only paid part of the withheld funds. In total, Mike did not pay more than $1 million in taxes owed to the IRS during these five quarters. During the same time, Mike used Excel’s funds to pay his personal expenses. Mike also filed false personal income tax returns for tax years 2014 and 2015. On those returns, Mike falsely claimed credit for federal tax withholdings from wages he received from Excel, knowing that these withholdings had not been paid over to the IRS. In total, Mike caused a tax loss to the IRS of $1,177,947. In addition to the term of imprisonment, Judge Freeman ordered Mike to serve three years of supervised release and to pay $1,177,947 in restitution to the United States and a $100 special assessment. The defendant will begin serving the sentence on March 18, 2025. United States Attorney Ismail J. Ramsey, Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stuart M. Goldberg of the Justice Department’s Tax Division, and IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) Oakland Field Office Special Agent in Charge Linda Nguyen made the announcement. Assistant U.S. Attorney Sarah E. Griswold and Assistant Chief Matthew J. Kluge of the Justice Department’s Tax Division are prosecuting the case with the assistance of Lynette Dixon. The prosecution is the result of an investigation by IRS-CI. IRS-CI is the criminal investigative arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money-laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more. IRS-CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code, obtaining a more than a 90 percent federal conviction rate. The agency has 20 field offices located across the U.S. and 12 attaché posts abroad.
