TULSA — The ex-president of a steel pole manufacturing company who formerly was a University of Oklahoma regent pleaded guilty March 10 to evading more than $1 million in income taxes.
According to court documents, Phillip Barry Albert, 63, of Tulsa, was president of Pelco Structural LLC from 2014 to 2019, working from its Claremore office, and directed its outside payroll service company to pay him more than $2.6 million.
Albert instructed that the payments be classified as reimbursements rather than income, so that federal income taxes would not be withheld, and the payments would not be reported on his W-2 forms as wages.
Albert filed individual income tax returns for 2014 through 2019 that did not report the payments, totaling $2,615,750.
As part of a plea agreement with the federal government, Albert was ordered to pay $1,000,232 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Services and not less than $2,615,750 in restitution to Pelco Industries of Edmond. He also faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison.
Another former Pelco Structural employee, Donald E. Eagleton Jr., 65, pleaded guilty to wire fraud.
Eagleton, who was employed as a controller, handled payroll, accounts receivable, accounts payable, financial statements and the general ledger. “I reported directly to Phillip Albert, the president and managing member of Pelco Structural,” Eagleton wrote.
Between 2016 and 2019 “I became aware that Mr. Albert was engaged in a scheme to defraud the owners of Pelco Structural by embezzling money from the company,” Eagleton wrote in his plea agreement. “Mr. Albert directed me to set up a special category of ‘reimbursement’ payments to Mr. Albert on the company books and records to conceal the true nature of the payments.
“Then the payroll processing company, Paychex, in New York, would issue checks to Mr. Albert by use of interstate wires. Despite my knowledge of the foregoing, I never reported any of this to law enforcement.”
Both men await sentencing in Tulsa’s Northern District federal court.