A Virginia man was arraigned on an indictment charging tax fraud that was returned by a federal grand jury in Roanoke, Virginia, on Aug. 20, 2020. He was arrested upon entry into the United States after residing overseas for more than a year. According to the indictment, from approximately 1987 through at least 2010 James C. Jones Jr., of Christiansburg, owned Lifeline Ambulance Service Inc. (Lifeline). From approximately January 2008 through December 2009, Jones allegedly withheld payroll taxes from Lifeline’s employees’ paychecks but willfully failed to pay over these taxes to the IRS. He also allegedly obstructed the IRS’s ability to collect these delinquent payroll taxes by making false statements on IRS forms, selling real estate he owned and transferring assets under his control in the United States to foreign and domestic nominee entities. Jones supported these foreign asset transfers by allegedly providing false documents to the IRS and causing his then-attorney to make false statements in response to a grand jury subpoena.
