Santa Rosa marijuana distributor sentenced to prison on tax fraud

A Santa Rosa man was sentenced this week to two years in prison after failing to report more than $1.1 million in revenue from his marijuana distribution business on his federal income tax returns.

Charles Woods, 44, was also ordered Thursday by U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston to pay a fine of $10,000 and restitution of $466,707, which is equivalent to the tax loss resulting from the business proceeds he did not report, according to the office of U.S. Attorney Alex Tse.

Woods pleaded guilty May 25.

As part of his guilty plea, Woods admitted he distributed cannabis from 2012 through 2014 and in each of the three years reported gross receipts of under $85,000, even though he really earned hundreds of thousands of dollars more, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Woods deposited more than $1 million into many different bank accounts he controlled, making a series of transactions in less than $10,000 increments, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

In addition to the two-year prison sentence, Illston ordered Woods to serve one year of supervised release after he gets out. He must surrender on or before Jan. 11 to start serving his sentence.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office said its prosecution of the case stemmed from an investigation conducted by the Internal Revenue Service.