Former Portage Mayor James Snyder filed an appeal Monday to his 3-year probation sentence on his conviction for obstructing the IRS.
U.S. District Court Northern District of Indiana Chief Judge Holly Brady sentenced Snyder to 3 years probation and repayment to the IRS on March 10 — Snyder’s 48th birthday.
Under the terms of the sentence, Snyder will have to pay $78,111.57 in restitution, which is what he still owes for obstructing the IRS, Brady said, made in monthly payments of $570 a month. Brady said Snyder has paid $18,000 of his debt.
Snyder’s appeal makes a motion for new trial on his charge of obstructing the IRS and challenges the denial of his motion for acquittal and the denial of a motion for leave to file a motion for a new trial for obstructing the IRS, according to the two-page notice of appeal.
Snyder’s lawyer Joshua Minkler did not immediately respond to comments about why the appeal was filed.
Earlier in his sentencing hearing, Snyder addressed the judge in a question-and-answer session with Minkler asking him questions. When asked, Snyder said he believed “this crime is extremely serious.”
Over the years, Snyder said the indictment, trials and media coverage have been taxing on him and his family. Snyder told Brady about his wife, four children and his work at his church, and he assured the judge he would be committed to his family, church and work if he was spared jail time.
Addressing his family, Snyder said: “I think that I could’ve done better.”
Brady asked Snyder how the case impacted him. Snyder told her the experience has “humbled him.”
“Every time you seem to fight, you think you win and you don’t,” Snyder said. “I just want to be done, get it right and get it behind me.”
Prosecutors requested a 21-month prison sentence, but Minkler advocated three years probation or probation and home confinement instead of prison time.
Snyder previously asked for a new trial on his conviction for defrauding the IRS in federal court filings in October 2025. Federal prosecutors, in their response, said his request was untimely and without merit.
This is the latest chapter in a saga that began nearly 10 years ago when Snyder was indicted in November 2016 on one count of defrauding the IRS and two counts of bribery, one involving towing contracts and the other involving garbage trucks.
A jury in U.S. District Court in Hammond found Snyder not guilty on the charge involving the towing contract, but convicted him twice on the garbage truck charge. Snyder, a Republican, was first elected mayor in 2011 and reelected in 2015, a term cut short by his federal conviction in February 2019.
The case made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled in June 2024 that the $13,000 payment Snyder received over a garbage truck contract was a gratuity, not a bribe, because the payment came after the contract and not before. The case was remanded to the lower courts.
The IRS charge involved Snyder’s personal business and not his duties as mayor at the time, and that conviction had remained unchallenged.
In a sentencing memorandum, prosecutors argued that between January 2010 and April 2013 Snyder executed a scheme to obstruct the IRS’s collection of his unpaid business and personal taxes.
In 2007, Snyder created First Financial Trust Mortgage LLC, a mortgage loan origination business, where he withheld a portion of employees’ paycheck for taxes on payroll, income, Medicare, and Social Security, prosecutors said.
But, in 2007, 2008, and 2009, Snyder didn’t remit those funds taken from employees’ paychecks to the IRS. Snyder also didn’t file IRS forms in a timely manner, prosecutors said.
By November 2009, the IRS discovered that the company owed approximately $97,000, prosecutors said, while Snyder paid himself approximately $110,000 from the company bank account.
In January 2010, Snyder signed an employment agreement with a mortgage company called GVC and opened a “branch office” out of his First Financial Trust Mortgage LLC office. Under the agreement, GVC hired Snyder as an employee and hired and paid all his employees, prosecutors said.
In 2010, GVC paid Snyder approximately $141,891.27, prosecutors said. Also in 2010, Snyder began creating “phony invoices” from a company called SRC to bill First Financial Trust Mortgage LLC for “consulting” work, prosecutors said.
GVC paid SRC over $400,000 in 2010, 2011 and 2012, and SRC received deposits totaling over $640,000 in that same time frame, prosecutors said.
“By routing GVC’s payments through SRC instead of FFTM, (Snyder) concealed FFTM’s true financial status from the IRS. It was a shell game to obstruct the IRS in its tax assessment and collection obligations,” prosecutors said.
On his personal taxes, Snyder owed the IRS $31,369 for tax years 2005, 2006 and 2007. But, under penalty of perjury, in March 2010 Snyder stated his personal tax debt was uncollectible and instead offered to pay $1,000, prosecutors said.
Snyder didn’t disclose to the IRS his employment at GVC, didn’t list his income from GVC and didn’t disclose his ownership of SRC or its bank accounts. The March 2010 tax form didn’t disclose, for example, that Snyder received $141,891.27 in wages from GVC, prosecutors said.
In total, the total tax loss in this case is $125,149.57: $96,111.57 in what FFTM failed to pay and $29,038 in Snyder’s personal taxes, prosecutors said.
akukulka@post-trib.com
