Columbia, South Carolina – In a significant legal development, Mari Ross-Alexander, an associate vice president of the University of South Carolina, was recently charged for allegedly neglecting to pay over $1 million in employment taxes. The claims shocked the academic community and resulted in Ross-Alexander’s official October 23 departure from her post.
Serving as the Associate Vice President for Student Health and Well-Being at the institution, Ross-Alexander came under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice on her management of Ross Behavioral Group, a mental health counseling center she ran in Tennessee. First made public by the Daily Gamecock, the university’s student newspaper, the indictment consists of 11 counts of “willful failure to account for and pay over employment tax,” each carrying a possible maximum sentence of five years and fines up to $250,000 or double the amount of the financial gain or loss involved.
Beginning her work at USC in July 2023, Ross-Alexander oversaw programs for counseling and drug misuse treatment. Over a ten-year career in higher education, she has mostly been the assistant vice chancellor of student affairs at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. But the claims about her past commercial activity have eclipsed her professional successes.
The federal indictment claims that Ross-Alexander withheld federal taxes from her employees’ pay at Ross Behavioral Group but neglected to pay the IRS these sums from at least 2015 to 2021. Employee tax records and statements allegedly validated this disparity by implying that their withheld money had been paid to the federal agency, in error.
The legal problems became more serious when Ross-Alexander allegedly disregarded several letters, even though the IRS had earlier contacted him starting in October 2018 about unpaid taxes. Her company got a sizable loan under the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) in May 2020 meant to help local businesses in keeping staff members and handling taxes among the COVID-19 pandemic. The value exceeded $130,000. Despite these funds, it is alleged that she continued her practice of withholding taxes without making the necessary payments to the IRS.
The accusation points to a major breach of trust and fiduciary responsibility as Ross-Alexander apparently had sole control over the financial situation of her company. The situation not only clouds her past positions but also raises concerns regarding responsibility and supervision in corporate operations.
The university community and the larger higher education sector will closely monitor the effects of this case throughout the court processes, especially in relation to ethical management and financial obligations. The University of South Carolina has meantime started looking for a replacement to carry on the effort of promoting student welfare and health at the university.
