SHELBY COUNTY, Ala. (WBMA) — A Shelby County chiropractor pleaded guilty to charges of tax evasion and interfering with the administration of the internal revenue laws.
United States Attorney Prim F. Escalona said 65-year-old Gary Forrest Edwards entered the plea during his trial in Birmingham.
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According to court documents and evidence admitted during trial, from 2015 to 2023, authorities said Edwards attempted to evade payment of more than $2.5 million in income taxes and obstructed the IRS’s efforts to collect those taxes.
Edwards owned and operated the chiropractic practice Hoover Health & Wellness Center.
Authorities said in 2015, he agreed to and did file delinquent income tax returns with the IRS for tax years 2009 through 2013.
He later filed an income tax return for 2017. Despite filing the returns and reporting millions of dollars in taxable income, Edwards never paid the more than $2.5 million in taxes he admitted he owed—or the near $1.9 million in penalties and interested assessed by the IRS.
Authorities said court documents also reflected Edwards’ admission to several of the ways by which he evaded payment of his taxes and obstructed collection of them: concealing financial accounts he owned from the IRS, transferring funds from accounts he owned to accounts in only his spouse’s name, filing false court documents to terminate federal tax liens against his property, lying to IRS criminal investigators, and more.
Authorities said Edwards will be sentenced later this year.
He faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison for the evasion charge and three years in prison on the obstruction charge. He also faces a period of supervised release, restitution, and monetary penalties. U.S. District Judge Anna Manasco will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
