Roofing firm owner sentenced to prison

The owner of a Mercer Countyroofing company was sentenced Thursday to 18 months in federal prison for hiding $3.7 million in business receipts from the IRS overthree years.

U.S. District Judge W. Scott Hardy imposed that term on Dustin Golub, 35, of Hermitage, owner of Penn OhioRoofing and Siding.

The judge also ordered him to pay $510,235 in restitution to the government and a $10,000 fine.

Golub was charged in February by criminal information, which is a direct charge brought after someone has cooperated with the U.S. attorney’s office. He then waived indictment the following month and pleaded guilty to tax evasion.

The criminal division of the IRS said he intentionally failed to report $3.7 million in gross receipts from his company.

Instead of depositing the receipts in the company account, he hid them across nine different accounts, four of them in the names of his children.

Agents said he also avoided bank currency transaction reports by making sure all transactions were below $10,000.

The IRS calculated the tax loss at $438,134, which with interest comes to the $510,235 figureimposed by the judge.

AssistantU.S. Attorney Lee Karl said Golub’s motive was greed. His business has been successfuland he has no criminal history or personal circumstances to otherwise explainwhy he cheated.

“Despite making significant sums of money, the defendant was not satisfied and wantedmore,” Mr. Karl wrote in sentencing papers. “As such, he devised a plan to evade taxes, which is the equivalentof stealing from the IRSand the United States.”

He said Golub “methodically”spread business income over various personal accounts and continued to do so despite instructions from his bank that it was against bank policy.

When he intentionally structuredfunds into those accounts to avoid the mandatory reporting requirements for deposits over $10,000, bank employees again told him that what he was doing was criminal.

“But he was not deterred,” Mr.Karl wrote.

Over the course of 2016, 2017 and 2018, he failed to report $3.7 million in business income and stopped only because the IRS criminal divisioncame after him.

Inaddition to the 18 months behind bars, Judge Hardy ordered that Golub will be on probation for another 18 monthswhen he gets out.