A Jacksonville dentist who owed about $1.1 million in income taxes is facing charges of tax evasion and trying to obstruct the Internal Revenue Service, prosecutors said Tuesday, August 11.
Jon Christopher Williams pleaded not guilty to each of the 16 counts in an indictment that, if he were convicted on all charges, could carry potential for significant prison time.
The charges include one count that says Williams responded to an IRS investigation by telling a string of government offices he had been wronged and wanted $525,000 to resolve the matter.
That count, involving trying to obstruct the IRS, carries a potential three-year prison sentence, said a release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office. The other counts carry terms up to five years each.
State records said Williams has been licensed as a dentist since 1986 with no public complaints on file and incorporated his practice on 14th Avenue South in Jacksonville Beach in 1999.
The indictment said he filed taxes normally through 2012, asked for extensions to pay his 2013 and 2014 returns, but “did not file a Form 1040 or any other individual tax return with the IRS for any tax year after 2012.” Williams also hadn’t filed any business tax returns after 2012, the indictment said.
The IRS sent Williams’ tax record to its criminal investigation unit in 2021 and an agent served a summons at the dental office telling Williams to come to an interview that fall and to bring his business records.
Instead, the indictment said, Williams emailed the agent who came to his office that her actions were “causing me harm, injury and loss” and told her to stop.
“I wish and require that you cease and desist any and all actions against me and restore my public name and reputation,” the indictment said Wiliams wrote.
The indictment said that in May 2023 ― a year and a half later ― Williams sent an “affidavit of truth and claim of harm” saying the agent had obtained records from banks, credit card companies and elsewhere that were properly his. Besides the agent, the affidavit was addressed to the U.S. secretary of state, the attorney general, the secretary of the treasury and the commissioner of the IRS, the indictment said.
Separate from the obstruction charge, the U.S. Attorney’s Office contended Williams had failed to report about $3.4 million in income from his business between 2020 and 2023 and should have paid $1,079,136 in taxes on that.
Minutes from his initial appearance hearing said Williams was tentatively scheduled to stand trial October 5 before U.S. District Judge Jordan E. Pratt.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Indictment: Duval dentist owes IRS $1.1M, asked feds to pay $525,000
Reporting by Steve Patterson, Jacksonville Florida Times-Union / Florida Times-Union
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By Steve Patterson, Jacksonville Florida Times-Union | USA TODAY Network
