South Carolina man and coal mine owner sentenced for tax fraud

Date: Feb. 5, 2026

Contact: newsroom@ci.irs.gov

London, KY – A Meggett, South Carolina, man, John Quintrell was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Robert Wier to 48 months in prison for willful failure to pay over more than $22 million in taxes owed to the IRS.

According to his plea agreement, from at least September 2018 through April 2025, Quintrell was the sole owner of Civil LLC, a mining business, located in Harlan County. Civil LLC was required to withhold taxes from its employees’ paychecks, including federal income taxes, as well as Medicare and Social Security taxes (i.e., FICA taxes). For the period of October 1, 2019, through March 31, 2025, Quintrell caused Civil LLC to withhold federal income taxes and FICA taxes from employees' paychecks, as it should have done; however, Quintrell then willfully caused the business to fail to account for, and pay over, to the IRS approximately $22,146,389.56 in federal income taxes, FICA taxes, as well as the employer's share of such payroll taxes.

Quintrell was also ordered to pay $22,146,389.56 in restitution.

Under federal law, Quintrell must serve 85 percent of his prison sentence. Upon his release from prison, he will be under the supervision of the U.S. Probation Office for three years.

Paul McCaffrey, First Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky, and Karen Wingerd, Special Agent in Charge, IRS-Criminal Investigation, Detroit Field Office, jointly announced the sentence.

The investigation was conducted by the IRS. Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrea Mattingly Williams is prosecuting the case on behalf of the United States.

IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) is the law enforcement arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more. IRS-CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code, obtaining a 90% federal conviction rate. The agency has 19 field offices located across the U.S. and 14 attaché posts abroad.