Tax fraud lands Placerville man in prison

A Placerville man is going to prison for tax fraud.

Thomas W. Stringfellow, 55, was sentenced Dec. 18 to 18 months in prison and ordered to pay $687,182 in restitution for willfully making false tax returns.

According to court documents, from 2006-10, Stringfellow underreported his business income on tax returns by more than $1.1 million, and underreported his personal income on tax returns by more than $1 million.

Stringfellow owned New Horizon Painting, and rather than depositing all of the business checks into the appropriate accounts, he cashed some of the checks and did not report those amounts as income.

In total, Stringfellow’s underreporting of his business income and his personal income led to a tax loss of more than $687,000.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report