An El Paso business owner is facing serious time behind bars after federal prosecutors accused him of stiffing the IRS out of employment taxes. Edward Dean La Puma, the man behind the local company 77 Stone, allegedly skirted his duty to pay up the government's dough from March 2018 to January 2023, according to an indictment unsealed by the authorities.
La Puma, 57, didn't just miss a payment or two. The indictment slaps him with 20 counts of failing to account for, and fork over trust fund taxes that he collected from his employees, money meant for the IRS coffers. If he's found guilty on all charges, he's looking at up to a century in the slammer – that's five years for each count. However, like any other accused lawbreaker in this land, he's innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
The feds didn't mince words when they announced the charges. "An indictment is merely an allegation and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law," asserted the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Texas in their press release.
La Puma's alleged mishandling of the IRS's money didn't go unnoticed. IRS Criminal Investigation's special agent Ramsey E. Covington, who's running the show out of the Houston Field Office, was part of the team that brought the charges. The courtroom duel will be handled by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Micaela Glass and Chris Skillern, seasoned pros when it comes to prosecuting, these kinds of tax evasion cases.
