Christopher Filos, charged in connection with allegedly not paying more than $260,000 in state and local taxes withheld from employees of the shuttered HPM plant in Mount Gilead, Ohio, made two court appearances in Morrow County Common Pleas Court.
According to Morrow County Prosecutor Charles Howland, Filos faces three charges: aggravated theft of $216,811 in state taxes withheld from HPM workers; failure to pay income taxes; and theft of $44,686 in withholding taxes owed to the village of Mount Gilead.
Filos pleaded innocent to the felony charges. On Oct. 22, he was released from jail after posting 10 percent of the $500,000 bond set by Common Pleas Judge Howard Hall in Mount Gilead.
As conditions of the bond, Filos waived extradition from New Jersey to Morrow County, and surrendered his passport, Howland said.
Neither Filos nor his lawyer, Gregory Peterson of Columbus, Ohio, could be reached for comment for this story.
Prosecutor Howland said the bond was paid by Filos' mother, Dorothy Filos, and his brother, Joe Filos. The case is set for a pretrial hearing Jan. 23. The judge set a trial date of March 3.
Residents of Mount Gilead, where HPM began in 1877, saw the aging plastics machinery factory close down four years ago, and then get auctioned off.
Filos was arrested Sept. 27 at the airport in Newark, N.J. Authorities have not explained why Filos was arrested there.
