Traverse City café owner indicted, accused of failing to pay IRS $47,679 in taxes owed for his workers

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. — A federal grand jury has indicted the owner of a Traverse City restaurant on 10 felony counts, accusing him of failing to pay the Internal Revenue Service $47,679 in employment taxes owed on behalf of his employees, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Michigan announced Thursday.

Christopher Robin Roehler, 65, of Traverse City, owned and managed Rolling Farms Café and was responsible for collecting, accounting for and paying over the restaurant’s employment taxes, according to prosecutors’ description of the indictment. It alleges he “willfully failed to truthfully account for and pay over” those taxes on 10 occasions between September 2020 and December 2022.

“The tax offense charged against Roehler is especially galling because it involves taking money out of an employee’s pocket with the promise that the money will be turned over to the government as part of the employee’s tax obligation,” U.S. Attorney Timothy VerHey said in the announcement. “Any employer who keeps that money for himself betrays that promise. We look forward to proving these charges in court.”

Failing to collect, account for or pay over employment taxes is a felony. Each of the 10 counts carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison, a $250,000 fine and the costs of prosecution, the office said.

An indictment is only an allegation, and Roehler is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court. The announcement did not name an attorney for him or list a court date.

Rolling Farms Café was in the Copper Ridge Marketplace, the Traverse City Record-Eagle reported, and has been closed for an extended period, according to The Ticker.

The case was West Michigan’s piece of a nationwide enforcement surge led by the Justice Department’s new National Fraud Enforcement Division, the IRS and IRS Criminal Investigation. Since early September, federal prosecutors have brought actions against 76 criminal defendants, 31 of them newly charged, in cases the department says involve about $490 million in intended losses to taxpayers.

The Justice Department created the fraud division on April 7. It supports President Donald Trump’s Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, chaired by Vice President JD Vance, which targets fraud, waste and abuse in federal benefit programs, according to the department.

Sources:
U.S. Attorney’s Office, Western District of Michigan, “The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Michigan Joins DOJ's Fraud Division, IRS, and IRS-CI in National Tax Enforcement Surge Exposing $490 Million in Tax Fraud,” press release, Oct. 15, 2026 (indictment allegations, $47,679, 10 counts, penalties, VerHey quote, national surge figures, Fraud Division background), https://www.justice.gov/usao-wdmi/pr/WDMI_2026_Tax_Surge_PR
The Ticker, Beth Milligan, “Rolling Farms Cafe Owner Indicted on Tax Fraud,” Oct. 15, 2026 (café closed for an extended period), https://www.traverseticker.com/news/rolling-farms-cafe-owner-indicted-on-tax-fraud/
Traverse City Record-Eagle, “Café owner indicted in national tax enforcement surge,” Oct. 15, 2026 (Copper Ridge Marketplace location), https://www.record-eagle.com/news/local_news/caf-owner-indicted-in-national-tax-enforcement-surge/article_bb9fe7de-08e7-45f4-ad0a-7c0e590422f0.html
9&10 News, Adam Bartelmay, “Traverse City restaurant owner indicted for unpaid employment taxes,” Oct. 15, 2026 (charge summary), https://www.9and10news.com/2026/10/15/traverse-city-restaurant-owner-indicted-for-unpaid-employment-taxes/
Photo: G. Edward Johnson, “Sign for the Internal Revenue Service building Washington DC 2025-02-07 13-21-52 1.jpg,” Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), resized and color-adjusted, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sign_for_the_Internal_Revenue_Service_building_Washington_DC_2025-02-07_13-21-52_1.jpg

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