A Raleigh businesswoman was arrested Tuesday on felony and misdemeanor tax charges filed by the North Carolina Department of Revenue.
Trellace Ellington Gaines, 56, of 4201 Lake Boone Trail, Raleigh, was charged on June 16, 2020, with one count of Embezzlement of State Property, four counts of Willful Failure to File North Carolina Corporation Income Tax Returns, and four counts of Willful Failure to File North Carolina Individual Income Tax Returns.
Arrest warrants allege that Trellace Ellington Gaines, Secretary/Treasurer and responsible person of Roy E. Gaines, Jr., D.D.S., M.D., P.A., assisted, or aided and abetted the corporation to embezzle, misapply, and convert to its own use $17,968.00 in North Carolina Withholding Tax during the period of January 1, 2013 through January 31, 2019. During this period of time, Gaines was the responsible person of the corporation, which was under a duty to collect, hold in trust, and remit North Carolina Withholding Tax to the North Carolina Department of Revenue.
Additional arrest warrants allege that Gaines, knowingly and willfully failed to file North Carolina Corporation Income Tax Returns for the tax years 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017, and was required to file North Carolina Individual Income Tax Returns for the tax years 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017, but willfully failed to file the returns.
Gaines appeared before a Wake County magistrate and was placed under a $15,000.00 bond. A first appearance is scheduled for June 17, 2020 in Wake County District Court in Raleigh.
The charges against Gaines resulted from an investigation by special agents with the Department’s Criminal Investigations Division in Raleigh.