Missouri Man Sentenced to 51 Months in Prison for Employment Tax Crimes

Ephantus Mwangi, 48, a Missouri resident and Kenyan national, was sentenced on October 5, 2026, to 51 months in prison for willfully failing to pay over employment taxes to the IRS, the Justice Department said. U.S. District Judge Daniel D. Crabtree also ordered three years of supervised release and $1,597,835.24 in restitution to the United States.

According to the department, Mwangi owned and operated True Payment Solutions, Inc., a Kansas-based business that sold credit-card processing services and card readers and employed 20 to 30 people at a time. From at least the third quarter of 2017 through at least the fourth quarter of 2018, he withheld $331,404.33 in taxes from employees' wages but did not pay it to the IRS or file employment tax returns, the department said.

The department said that from 2016 to 2019 Mwangi transferred more than $1.5 million from his companies' accounts to personal accounts and used funds for vehicle loan payments, a rented home in San Antonio and private school tuition. He also failed to file certain individual and corporate tax returns, causing a tax loss exceeding $1.5 million, according to the department.

The department said Mwangi failed to appear for an April 27, 2026, sentencing and remained a fugitive for about six weeks until his arrest during a traffic stop, where he gave a false name and birth date.

Source: U.S. Department of Justice.

Originally published by True News: https://truenews.bagleyenterprises.net/stories/129