GREENE – Not long after Mary and Tony Wrench established Wrench’s Village Auto Service in 2004, they signed on with Aeden Waterford. The payroll services company, owned by William P. Stiles, had an office next door at 3 Foundry St. and the Wrenches remember someone walking over with a glass jar of candy to welcome them as a new client.
The logo-ed glass jar still sits on the auto shop’s customer service counter, and the Wrenches joke about whether they should try to sell it or use it to collect donations. The extra money would come in handy right now, as they recently learned they owe thousands of dollars to the IRS in federal employment taxes – taxes they believed had already been paid on their behalf by Aeden Waterford.
And they’re not alone: The company – which was in operation for close to eight years and had offices in Binghamton and Greene – had more than 100 clients, many of which are in the same boat.
“He has stolen money from a lot of people. It’s definitely having an impact on a lot of business owners,” reported Mary Wrench, who said she and her husband are concerned not only for themselves, but for the entire community.
In August, Aeden Waterford’s owner, William P. Stiles, closed the business, giving clients and staff less than a week’s notice. There was no hint of wrong-doing, however, until roughly three weeks ago.
That was when many of Aeden Waterford’s former clients received a letter, in which Stiles disclosed the fact that the company had “failed to remit all of the federal taxes that you have paid for the third quarter of this year.” By his own admission, money clients had paid for the quarter had been used to cover penalties and interest for delinquencies which had “occurred over the past few years.”
The reason for these delinquencies was explained in a second letter, enclosed with the first. It stated that around 2004, “some of the funds collected from clients of Aeden Waterford were used to meet expenses other than the tax obligations of each client,” leaving less money than needed to pay the taxes due. While the company continued to prepare and file payroll tax returns for their clients, he admitted that they were not always filed with full payment. The shortfall grew over time, as the money clients believed they were paying for the current quarter were used to cover penalties and interest.
“It’s just devastating,” said Linda Jones, owner of The Old Mill Restaurant in Greene.
Jones has already been in touch with the IRS investigator assigned to the case, and knows she’ll need to pay over a $1,000 – again. While the federal agency is waiving penalties, she’s been told if she doesn’t pay the amount due for her third quarter employment taxes, she will face interest charges.
For her small business, it will be a struggle to come up with those additional funds before the due date. But she knows that others are being hit even harder.
“He’s going to end up shutting down some businesses,” said Jones.
While the Wrenches didn’t receive a letter from Stiles, they did receive one a week or so later from the IRS. That was when they learned they owed not only for the third quarter, but for the second quarter as well. It came as a shock, they said, because they had already paid those taxes once – to Aeden Waterford.
“It’s just not something you prepare for,” Mary Wrench said, explaining that they still aren’t sure how they will be able to cover the unexpected bill. They’ve considered everything from mortgaging their home to selling the business.
Mike Sergi of Sergi’s Well Drilling chose to dip into his retirement account to pay off the approximately $5,100 he owed the IRS as a result of Stiles’ wrong-doing.
“It was a shock to my system,” he said, describing his reaction first to the news that the payroll company was going out of business, and then to the contents of the letter he received.
“I read that letter three times,” the local business owner said.
Before that, he said, he’d never had any indication that Aeden Waterford was less than above board.
“If I had a question, they were right on top of it,” Sergi explained. He does remember receiving a notice from the IRS at one point, he said, but Stiles quick to explain it away as an error on the part of the federal agency.
Now, Sergi said he’s “waiting for the other shoe to drop,” wondering what else he may owe for Stiles’ mistakes.
Sergi and the others have little hope of recouping all of the money Aeden Waterford’s owner has cost them, but they are hoping to have at least a small portion of it back. They’ve all been in touch with Stiles’ attorney – Paul Predmore of Green & Seifter, Attorneys, PLLC in Syracuse – to see how much, if any, they will see returned to them as a result of the sale of Aeden Waterford’s client list to Paychex.
Mary Wrench said she had been told by Predmore that would likely see no more than 10 percent of the funds returned to them.
A representative from the large Rochester-based payroll services company confirmed the purchase via phone on Thursday. Calls to Predmore’s office went unreturned as of press time.
There is also the matter of justice.
“Why should he be walking free? He should be in jail,” said Sergi. Jones and the Wrenches expressed similar sentiments.
Chenango County District Attorney Joseph McBride confirmed that both his office and that of the Broome County District Attorney have received complaints against Stiles and Aeden Waterford. According to McBride, however, the local investigation is “on hold pending the status of the federal investigation.”