AKRON — An Akron businessman has pleaded guilty in federal court to failing to pay more than $1.2 million in employment taxes, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Ohio announced on Thursday, Oct. 15.
Thomas Armour II, 60, pleaded guilty on Sept. 17 to not paying $1,247,888 in employment taxes, according to federal prosecutors. Armour owned and operated American Made Bags, a promotional goods supply company based in Akron.
Investigators determined that from 2017 through 2020, Armour failed to file the required quarterly employment tax forms and failed to turn over the tax money his business owed, prosecutors said. Employment taxes are typically withheld from workers’ paychecks and held in trust for the federal government, and business owners who keep them expose themselves to criminal prosecution. Because the money represents deductions already taken from employees’ pay, prosecutors treat its diversion as a serious breach rather than a bookkeeping dispute.
The case also carried an earlier history with federal labor regulators. The U.S. Department of Labor had previously investigated Armour’s company over Fair Labor Standards Act violations, a matter that was settled back in 2014, years before the tax investigation began.
U.S. Attorney David M. Toepfer said people who treat tax laws as optional will be held accountable, calling the conduct a decision to cheat a system that honest businesses follow. The prosecution grew out of a nationwide enforcement push led by the Justice Department’s National Fraud Enforcement Division, working with the Internal Revenue Service and its Criminal Investigation Division.
That effort, called the National Tax Enforcement Surge, ran from early September through Oct. 14. Prosecutors across the country brought cases against defendants alleged or proven to be responsible for an estimated $490 million in lost federal revenue, making the Akron plea one small part of a much larger national sweep.
The FBI’s Cleveland Division, the Akron Police Department and the Summit County Sheriff’s Office were among the agencies that took part in the investigations behind the surge cases. Armour is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 11, 2027, and he faces up to five years in prison.