Two Warren men who have pled guilty to federal tax and currency charges have had sentencing delayed.

According to federal court records, Randall Branch pled guilty to conspiracy to defraud the United States and willful failure to file a tax return during a September 26 proceeding at the federal courthouse in Erie.

On the same day, his son, John Branch, pled guilty to two counts of willful failure to file an income tax return.

All of the offenses are felonies.

Sentencing had been scheduled for February 13 in Erie but a motion filed on Friday sought to kick that date back to April 24 as “additional time is required to prepare for the Branch’s sentencing, in part, because medical records concerning the health of Randall Branch are many and counsel continues to work to identify all treating physicians and assemble such records to provide the Court a complete and comprehensive medical assessment of Mr. Branch for sentencing purposes.”

According to the grand jury indictment, the two men are “father and son owners of a business engaged in the extraction and sale of oil and natural gas obtained from various wells” in Warren County with a combined gross income “in excess of $6,900,000.00” between 2006 and 2012.

The indictment explains that “the defendants Randall Branch and John Branch, stopped filing tax returns with the IRS, after 1997 and after 1993, respectively, and began to dispute their obligation to pay taxes and did challenge the authority of the IRS to assess and collect taxes”

They were specifically charged with failing to provide tax returns in 2009, 2010 and 2011.

The grand jury alleged that the two men structured “approximately$2,649,210.93 in currency transactions by requiring their business receipts from EOC (Edward Oil Company) to be issued in checks made out in amounts less than $10,000.00 and cashing those checks, regularly doing so with multiple checks at different (bank) branches… on the same day.”

Federal authorities allege that the action was taken “to avoid the currency transaction reporting requirements, in an effort to impede the function of the IRS to assess and collect taxes.”

Grand jury allegations also indicate that “John Branch used cash and business receipt checks to fund wire transfers for the purchase of approximately 484,367.00 of precious metals, further attempting to impede the function of the IRS….”

The indictment includes forfeiture allegations, seeking the forfeiture of $2,649,210.97 to be turned over to the government as “currency involved in the commission of such offense.”

According to the indictment memorandum, the tax return charge carries a maximum penalty of one year in prison and a $100,000 fine. The charge of conspiracy to defraud the United States carries a five year and $250,000 fine maximum penalty.