The former owner and founder of an Aspinwall employment agency avoided federal prison Wednesday for failing to pay payroll taxes to the IRS but will have to hand over $658,000 to the government.
U.S. District Judge W. Scott Hardy gave Shelley Fant, 52, three years of probation, including six months of home detention, for various tax violations in connection to her business, FCG Solutions on Freeport Road.
Fant, who lives in the North Hills but grew up in Clairton, had been indicted in 2021 on 16 counts related to failure to pay the money and instead using it for herself, including buying a condo in Florida.
As president and owner of FCG, she failed to collect payroll taxes for her and her employees from 2016 through 2018 and also failed to file personal income tax returns for four years starting in 2015, the IRS said.
She earned more than $1 million in those years but didn’t file any returns, according to a grand jury.
In arguing for leniency, her lawyer, Michael DeRiso, recounted a history of abuse at the hands of her mother and later her ex-husband, a Nigerian native who was 23 years her senior and, according to DeReso, subjected her to physical, emotional and financial torment.
He said she bought the Florida condo to get away from the abuse, generate rental income and allow her daughters to attend Florida colleges at reduced in-state tuition rates.
He said she has since sold the property and will use the money to pay part of the restitution order.
DeRiso said Fant, who has a law degree from Cleveland State University, has been working as a recruiter for Huntington National Bank and Dycon Comfort Systems.
Torsten covers the courts for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Reach him at jtorsteno@gmail.com.
