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Denver, Colorado - Steven Darbee, 50, a former resident of Brighton, has been sentenced to 12 months and one day in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release and pay a sum of $308,370.59 to the IRS, covering taxes, interest, and penalties, for evading personal taxes for nearly a decade.

Key Points

• The plea agreement details that Darbee last submitted a tax return to the IRS in 2014. The evasion activities date back to April 2013 and continued until January 2021.
• Darbee employed deceptive strategies to evade tax assessment by submitting false Form W-4s to his employers. These forms falsely claimed multiple dependents, preventing his employers from withholding federal income tax.
• Despite only being authorized to claim two allowances, Darbee falsely claimed up to 99 dependents at times and declared himself “exempt” from paying federal taxes in 2021.
• Darbee failed to file tax returns for the years in question and also neglected to pay the taxes due by the annual April filing date.
• Efforts by the IRS to bring Darbee into compliance with tax laws were unsuccessful.