PINEVILLE, W.Va. -A Pineville man was sentenced to prison yesterday after not paying taxes withheld from employees’ wages at an ambulance service he operated and attempting to prevent the IRS from collecting those taxes.
Christopher J. Smyth, 49, will serve three years in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release and has been ordered to pay $4,616,704.76 in restitution.
According to court documents, from 2012 through part of 2017, Smyth operated Stat EMS LLC, an ambulance service located in Pineville. At the business, Smyth was responsible for withholding Social Security, Medicare and income taxes from employees’ wages and paying them to the IRS. For years, however, Smyth did not fully pay the taxes to the IRS. Instead, he paid various personal expenses and transferred funds to businesses held by his friends and family.
“The jury found that Mr. Smyth failed to pay more than $4.6 million withheld from his employees’ wages and obstructed efforts to recover those withholdings,” said Acting United States Attorney Lisa G. Johnston. “Ambulance services are critical to our communities, and Mr. Smyth repeatedly chose to jeopardize his by engaging in a 15-year scheme that was immense in its scope and scale. The sentence in this case serves to deter others who seek to break the law at the expense of the American taxpayer.”
Copyright 2025 WVVA. All rights reserved.