Roanoke, VIRGINIA – A woman who participated in a fraudulent cosmetics sales scheme pled guilty on Friday to federal tax charges, Acting United States Attorney Rick A. Mountcastle announced.
Charon Ray, a.k.a. “Charon Crowely,” 39, of Greensboro, North Carolina, pled guilty on March 3 in the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia to one count of filing a false tax return.
According to evidence presented during the guilty plea hearing, Ray operated an online cosmetic sales business out of her residence during the years in the year 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014. Ray obtained the cosmetics from a disposal company, and then repurposed them for sale through electronic sales channels such as eBay. The Internal Revenue Service examined Ray’s financial records for the relevant time period and determined that she knowingly failed to report at least $380,000 in income associated with her online business in 2011 alone. As part of her plea in this case, Ray will file updated returns for all years and make payment to the Internal Revenue Service for taxes owed.
The investigation of the case was conducted by the Internal Revenue Service. Special Assistant United States Attorney Kari Munro prosecuted the case for the United States.