CHARLOTTE, North Carolina — Charlotte businessman Michael Kahn has pleaded guilty to tax fraud after transferring more than $4.5 million from a charitable foundation he founded and controlled to himself and not reporting it as income, federal prosecutors said.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of North Carolina
Kahn, 66, of Charlotte, appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge David C. Keesler and pleaded guilty to filing a fraudulent income tax return, U.S. Attorney Russ Ferguson for the Western District of North Carolina announced.
Business North Carolina independently reported the plea on October 27, identifying Kahn as the former majority owner of the Charlotte Checkers hockey team and noting that a federal grand jury indictment against him was unsealed in January.
Source: Business North Carolina (Oct. 27, 2026)
A foundation with one person in every role
According to court documents, Kahn founded The Michael A. Kahn Family Foundation in 2010 as a tax-exempt organization purportedly dedicated to advancing charitable, religious and educational purposes. He held all of its leadership roles — Director, President, Treasurer, Secretary and Chairman of the Board — and the foundation had no other officers, board members or employees, prosecutors said.
Between 2020 and 2023, Kahn transferred over $4.5 million from the foundation to himself and failed to report those funds as income on his 2020 tax return filed with the IRS, according to court documents cited by prosecutors.
"Tax-exempt organizations are granted special status to serve charitable purposes, not to enrich those who control them," said Donald "Trey" Eakins, Special Agent in Charge of IRS Criminal Investigation's Charlotte Field Office.
What happens next
At sentencing, Kahn faces a maximum penalty of three years in prison for aiding and assisting in the preparation of a false tax return. A federal district court judge will determine the sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors. No sentencing date has been set, prosecutors said.
Business North Carolina reported that the January indictment charged Kahn with two counts of aiding and assisting in the preparation of a false tax return and two counts of failure to file a tax return, and that he held majority ownership of the Charlotte Checkers from 2006 until July 2024, when he sold the team to Jacksonville, Florida-based Zawyer Sports & Entertainment while remaining its largest minority partner.
The IRS Criminal Investigation division handled the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Caryn Finley of the Charlotte U.S. Attorney's Office is prosecuting the case.