Fayette County Man Pleads Guilty to Filing False Tax Return, $266,053 Tax Loss

Charleston, WV – Michael Graves of Charlton Heights pleaded guilty today to filing a false tax return. Graves admitted to causing tax losses totaling $266,053.00 by underreporting his income.

According to court documents and statements made in court, on Nov. 15, 2021, Graves filed a Form 1040, U.S. Individual Tax Return for tax year 2016 listing his income as $816.00. As part of his guilty plea, Graves admitted that he filed a false return and that his corrected tax income for 2016 was approximately $427,256.00. Graves further admitted that his false tax return resulted in a tax loss to the Internal Revenue Service of approximately $125,285.00.

Graves also admitted that he falsely listed his annual income as $816.00 on tax returns for years 2017 to 2020, underreporting his income by a total of approximately $608,163.00 and wrongfully withholding $140,768.00 from the U.S. Treasury Department.

Graves is scheduled to be sentenced on July 30, 2026, and faces a maximum penalty of three years in prison, up to one year of supervised release, and a fine of up to $250,000.00. Graves also owes $266,053.00 in restitution.

During the time period, Graves owned and operated West Virginia Environmental Services, Inc. (WVES). Graves and WVES were paid over $9.8 million from 2006 to 2020 to accept industrial waste at a Fayette County landfill and treat the resulting contaminated liquid or leachate. On Feb. 22, 2023, Graves pleaded guilty as an individual and on behalf of WVES to violating the Clean Water Act, admitting they failed to maintain the landfill’s leachate collection for several years beginning in at least 2016. This failure by Graves and WVES caused the discharge of toxic pollutants including arsenic, hexavalent chromium, and selenium into Jarrett Branch, a tributary that flows into the Kanawha River near Alloy. On Dec. 21, 2023, Graves was sentenced to one year of incarceration, to be served on home confinement as part of a five-year term of federal probation, and fined $10,000.00 WVES was fined $500,000.00 and placed on corporate probation for three years.

United States Attorney Moore Capito made the announcement and commended the investigative work of the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigations (IRS-CI). The Criminal Investigative Division of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection investigated the Clean Water Act violations, which brought the false tax returns to light.

The Department of Justice has created the National Fraud Enforcement Division. The core mission of the Fraud Division is to zealously investigate and prosecute those who steal or fraudulently misuse taxpayer dollars.  Department of Justice efforts to combat fraud support President Trump’s Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, a whole-of-government effort chaired by Vice President J.D. Vance to eliminate fraud, waste, and abuse within Federal benefit programs.

United States District Judge Thomas E. Johnston presided over the hearing. Assistant United States Attorney Erik S. Goes is prosecuting the case.

IRS-CI is the law enforcement 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. It is the only federal law enforcement agency with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code. IRS-CI has 18 field offices located across the U.S. and maintains an international presence through attaché posts abroad.