John W. Beakley pleaded not guilty Tuesday in a Dallas federal courtroom after a 12-count sealed indictment was filed against him in March in Lubbock federal court. The indictment was later unsealed.
Beakley was described as the president of (and the person having exclusive control over) a Lubbock company called Commerce Resource Group. The indictment said he failed to pay $503,773 in payroll taxes between the fourth quarter of 2010 and the fourth quarter of 2011.
Beakley was also described as the Chief Financial Officer for Richland Hills Golf Club Inc. in Midland. He was accused of failing to pay $196,981 in payroll taxes between the second quarter of 2010 and the fourth quarter of 2011.
In addition, Beakley was accused of not paying FICA and medicare taxes for the two companies.
Beakley was the subject of civil court action in 2012 when he was accused of investment fraud and a federal judge appointed a receivership trustee to take control of Rountable Corp. from Beakley. The receivership was dissolved and the civil case was dismissed for lack of evidence. Roundtable, which operated Dairy Queen locations in various parts of Texas, filed for bankruptcy.
In 2009 Beakley was a critic of how federal officials handled allegations of investment fraud against Benny Judah. Beakley met with Judah’s Lubbock-area victims in an attempt to take control of Judah’s assets from federal court oversight and run those assets on behalf of the victims.
Ultimately, Beakley was not able to do so.
Judah was sentenced to 25 years in prison and ordered to pay $59.8 million of restitution.
A call was made Thursday morning to Beakley’s attorney who said, “Mr. Beakley is not guilty of the charges and looks forward to his day in court and proving that.”
