Charges: Owner of Rochester-area auction business failed to pay nearly $800K in taxes

The owner of a Rochester-area auction business has been charged with more than two dozen felonies on accusations that he has failed to pay nearly $800,000 in taxes owed from 2018 to late last year.

Nicholas J. Graves, 41, of Oronoco, Minn., was charged last week in Wabasha County District Court with 26 counts alleging that he failed to pay various business and personal taxes from 2018 to October 2021.

Prosecutors allege that Graves, whose Mazeppa, Minn.-based Graves Online Auctions specializes in farm and construction equipment, owes more than $796,151 in unpaid sales and income taxes before any potential penalties and interest are included.

"We're just behind, and we're working to get it straightened out," Graves said Wednesday. "We got behind like people do."

A Minnesota Department of Revenue audit in 2019 also revealed that Graves failed to pay taxes for the years 2013 through 2017, the charges read.

"[Graves] was assessed the outstanding sale and income taxes, along with penalties and interest," last week's criminal complaint read. The complaint did not assign a dollar figure to the tax debt from those years.

Graves was then "extensively educated and advised by the Minnesota Department of Revenue on the correct procedures and his duty to file and pay what is required," the complaint continued.