United States of America v. Michael Graves

Charleston, West Virginia, criminal defense lawyer represented the Defendant charged with fraud and false statement.

Michael Graves

On November 15, 2021, Michael Graves filed a Form 1040, U.S. Individual Tax Return for tax year 2016 listing his income as $816.00. As part of his guilty plea, Graves admitted that he filed a false return and that his corrected tax income for 2016 was approximately $427,256.00. Graves further admitted that his false tax return resulted in a tax loss to the Internal Revenue Service of approximately $125,285.00.

Graves also admitted that he falsely listed his annual income as $816.00 on tax returns for years 2017 to 2020, underreporting his income by a total of approximately $608,163.00 and wrongfully withholding $140,768.00 from the U.S. Treasury Department.

Graves is scheduled to be sentenced on July 30, 2026, and faces a maximum penalty of three years in prison, up to one year of supervised release, and a fine of up to $250,000.00. Graves also owes $266,053.00 in restitution.

During the time period, Graves owned and operated West Virginia Environmental Services, Inc. (WVES). Graves and WVES were paid over $9.8 million from 2006 to 2020 to accept industrial waste at a Fayette County landfill and treat the resulting contaminated liquid or leachate. On February 22, 2023, Graves pleaded guilty as an individual and on behalf of WVES to violating the Clean Water Act, admitting they failed to maintain the landfill’s leachate collection for several years beginning in at least 2016. This failure by Graves and WVES caused the discharge of toxic pollutants including arsenic, hexavalent chromium, and selenium into Jarrett Branch, a tributary that flows into the Kanawha River near Alloy. On December 21, 2023, Graves was sentenced to one year of incarceration, to be served on home confinement as part of a five-year term of federal probation, and fined $10,000.00 WVES was fined $500,000.00 and placed on corporate probation for three years.

The Department of Justice has created the National Fraud Enforcement Division. The core mission of the Fraud Division is to zealously investigate and prosecute those who steal or fraudulently misuse taxpayer dollars. Department of Justice efforts to combat fraud support President Trump’s Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, a whole-of-government effort chaired by Vice President J.D. Vance to eliminate fraud, waste, and abuse within Federal benefit programs.