SALT LAKE CITY — The owner of four defunct Ogden-area health care businesses is headed to federal prison after being sentenced for failing to pay more than $568,000 in business and employee withholding taxes over a four-year period.

U.S. District Judge Jill Parrish on Thursday sentenced Daniel Fry, 46, to a year in a minimum-security prison and told him to report by June 15. Fry will have to spend a year on federal supervision after his release.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in December 2020 filed a 27-count indictment against Fry accusing him of not paying to the Internal Revenue Service employee and employer shares of income, Medicare and Social Security taxes from 2013-2016.

Court documents said Fry owned and operated Burch Creek Homecare and Hospice, Medical Billing Advantage, ScrubWorld and Country Niche Adult Day Care, all of them now out of business.

Fry agreed to a plea bargain in December, admitting to one of the charges in return for dismissal of the other 26.

“He’s a good guy who just had a tough time, and hopefully he’ll come out a wiser person and make some people whole,” Fry’s attorney, Roy Cole, said Monday.

In a sentencing memorandum, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said Fry told IRS investigators that “things were tight” and he was “too busy running the businesses.” Prosecutors recommended that Fry be sentenced to 18 months in prison and serve three years of supervision.

“The need for deterrence here is two-fold: to deter Fry from future offenses and to deter the general public from considering similar crimes,” the prosecution memo said. “In trust fund tax cases like this one, there is a heightened concern for general deterrence.”

Parrish ordered Fry to pay $568,590 in restitution. He must pay at least $850 a month once he is released from prison, the judge said. The judge said priority will be given to paying back amounts that were due for Social Security purposes.

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