Dental manager pleads guilty

A dental clinic manager in Texas pleaded guilty on March 28 for failing to pay more than $500,000 taxes withheld from employee wages, according to a press release dated March 28 from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of Texas.

As part of his plea deal, Jonathan Lepow, who was manager of his father’s dental practice, Kenneth A. Lepow DDS in Houston, has agreed to pay $495,847. Lepow is scheduled to be sentenced in August and faces up to five years in prison plus a possible maximum fine of $250,000.

Furthermore, Lepow, who was responsible for making financial decisions on behalf of the clinic, admitted that he failed to pay $544,272 in U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) trust fund taxes collected from the practice’s 51 employees during the first quarter of 2015, according to the release.

Instead of paying the money to the IRS, Lepow, who was arrested in April 2022, used the money to pay vendors and transferred funds to accounts of other entities he was involved in establishing. At the time of his arrest, authorities accused him of making deposits into accounts for the following businesses: Texas Center for Continuing Education, Lepow Properties, American Dental Supply, Lepow Management, and Lepow Management.