On January 23, 2024, a Mecklenburg County businessman pleaded guilty in Wake County Superior Court to three felony tax charges filed by the North Carolina Department of Revenue. Mint Hill resident Mark F. Ethridge, 64, pleaded guilty to three counts of Embezzlement of State Property.
Superior Court Judge Rebecca Holt sentenced Ethridge to a 19-month minimum, 32-month maximum prison term. The sentence was suspended, and as a condition of probation, Ethridge was placed on house arrest with electronic monitoring for 60 days, ordered to perform 100 hours of community service, and placed on supervised probation for 24 months. Prior to the plea, Ethridge paid $193,000.00 towards restitution and was ordered to pay the remaining $212.10 in restitution.
Information presented in court showed that Ethridge, owner of Stooges Pub and Grub, LLC, aided and abetted the business to embezzle, misapply, and convert to its own use approximately $193,212.10 in North Carolina Sales Taxes (State & Mecklenburg County) from February 1, 2015, through December 31, 2019. During this period, Ethridge was the responsible person of Stooges Pub and Grub, LLC and was under a duty to collect, hold in trust, and remit North Carolina and Mecklenburg County Sales Tax to the North Carolina Department of Revenue.
The charges against Ethridge resulted from an investigation by special agents with the Department’s Criminal Investigations Division in Raleigh. The case was prosecuted by the Special Prosecutions attorneys in the office of the Attorney General.