Chapel Hill risk consultant Charles Agee Atkins pleaded guilty today to orchestrating a years-long tax fraud scheme and illegally possessing a firearm as a convicted felon. The announcement, made by federal prosecutors in Greensboro, N.C., exposes a calculated pattern of financial deception and lawbreaking that spanned nearly a decade.
Atkins, who controlled multiple risk consulting firms — including Financial Engineering & Risk Management, LLC, Risk Assessment & Management, LLC, and Ram Omni, LLC — deliberately underreported income from 2011 through 2017. Court documents reveal he concealed over $380,000 in taxable income from the IRS. On top of that, he admitted to failing to pay more than $420,000 in back taxes, bringing the total tax loss to over $800,000.
The 1988 tax fraud convict didn’t stop at financial crimes. In 2019, federal agents executing a search warrant at Atkins’s Chapel Hill residence discovered a 12-gauge shotgun. Due to his prior felony conviction, Atkins was barred from possessing any firearm — a violation of federal law that landed him a second guilty plea.
U.S. District Judge Catherine Eagles will determine sentencing at a later date. Atkins now faces up to three years in prison for the tax charge and a maximum of ten years for being a felon in possession of a firearm. He also risks supervised release, restitution, and steep monetary penalties.
The investigation was led by special agents from IRS-Criminal Investigation, whose relentless pursuit of financial misconduct uncovered the depth of Atkins’s fraud. Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard E. Zuckerman and U.S. Attorney Matthew G.T. Martin praised the team’s work, underscoring the Justice Department’s commitment to holding white-collar offenders accountable.
Prosecution is being handled by Assistant Chief Todd Ellinwood of the Tax Division and Assistant U.S. Attorney Tanner Kroeger. With the case now heading toward sentencing, Atkins’s fall from business operator to federal defendant marks another stark warning: tax fraud and illegal gun possession carry steep consequences, no matter the title on the door.
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Key Facts
- State: North Carolina
- Agency: DOJ USAO
- Category: Fraud & Financial Crimes|Weapons|White Collar Crime
- Source: Official Source ↗
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