Former software CEO sentenced to more than two years in prison for tax evasion

Andrew Park, 49, of Bedford, will spend two-and-a-half years in prison after pleading guilty to tax evasion. Courtesy photo
CONCORD – Andrew Park, 49, of Bedford, was recently sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison and three years of supervised release for failing to pay $14.7 million in payroll taxes to the Internal Revenue Service.
Park was also ordered to pay $639,821 in interest as well as a $15,000 fine.
Park was the CEO of CarNow, a startup technology company in Burlington, Mass. serving auto dealerships. In that capacity, he was responsible for the company’s financial matters.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Park withheld federal, state and local taxes from his employees’ wages; however, those funds were never paid to the IRS, the Massachusetts Department of Revenue or the Burlington Tax Collector’s Office. Payroll taxes that the company owed also went unpaid. This activity began when CarNow was established in 2014 and continued through the third quarter of 2021.
During this time, Park’s payroll service company warned him “hundreds of times” about the outstanding tax payments. Four CarNow employees also filed complaints with the Social Security Administration.
Despite receiving an annual salary of $250,000, Park never filed individual tax returns from 2013 through 2020.
In July 2024, Park pleaded guilty to willful failure to pay over payroll taxes and willful failure to file a tax return.
“For many years, the defendant took elaborate steps to defraud the IRS by not filing or paying his personal income taxes and by using his employees’ payroll taxes as free capital to grow his business. Then, when matters got out of hand, he falsely told his investors that his company was tax compliant to secure the funds to try to make the problem disappear,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Jay McCormack. “The substantial sentence imposed by the court reflects the seriousness of the defendant’s conduct and his disregard for our nation’s tax laws and sends a message to deter other would-be tax fraudsters who might seek to enrich themselves at the expense of honest taxpayers.”
Thomas Demeo, acting special agent in charge of the Boston Field Office of the IRS Criminal Investigation Division, issued a reminder that paying taxes is “an obligation, not a choice.”
“When Andrew Park made the decision not to pay taxes for himself and his business, he also made the decision to cheat his employees and other honest taxpayers,” he said. “Investigations of employment tax fraud is a priority for Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation as our system of taxation depends on everybody paying their fair share.”