Founder and CEO of AdvisorHUB, a website featuring recruitment deal information and industry rumors, recently pled guilty to tax fraud. Andrew Parish voluntarily disclosed the issue in a blog post on his popular site Wednesday.
“Some may wonder why I’ve chosen to disclose this issue of my own volition. It has to do with what AdvisorHUB is. If I don’t hold myself to the same standards that we cover the industry with then I, and by some extension, we (AdvisorHUB) are hypocrites. We are not hypocrites,” Parish wrote Wednesday.
According to the Internal Revenue Service, Parish failed to account for and pay over employment taxes while he was running Axiom Consulting Group between January and March 2009. While Parish hired an accounting firm to process payroll for Axiom, he failed to follow proper procedures and ended up personally issuing a majority of payroll checks to employees during this time, the IRS claimed. The payroll checks contained required withholding, but Parish never remitted this money to the IRS. Parish sold Axiom to partners last March, according to Reuters.
As a result of the non-payment, the IRS claimed the total tax loss was almost $350,000. Parish could serve up to five years in prison and fined up to $250,000. He was released on bond pending a sentencing hearing, which has not yet been scheduled.
"My hope is that an amicable end will come to the proceeding and I won’t ever have to relive the folly of this episode," Parish said. "Whatever the outcome – AdvisorHUB isn’t going anywhere – and anyone that questions that is in the camp that is rooting for our demise."