A former Mecklenburg County businesswoman pled guilty Monday, March 24, in Wake County Superior Court to felony tax charges filed by the North Carolina Department of Revenue.
On March 24, 2025, Trudi Ann Zangardi, 71, of Cornelius, NC, pled guilty to three felony counts of Aid and Abet Embezzlement of State Property.
Wake County Superior Court Judge A. Graham Shirley II sentenced Zangardi to a 16-month minimum, 29-month maximum prison term. The sentence was suspended and Zangardi was placed on supervised probation for 24 months. Zangardi paid $59,742.31 in restitution prior to the plea.
Information presented in court showed that Zangardi, sole member of The Zan Group, LLC, did assist, or aid and abet the business to embezzle, misapply, and convert to its own use, approximately $59,742.31 in North Carolina Sales Tax during the period of January 1, 2020 through March 31, 2022. During this time, Zangardi was the responsible person of The Zan Group, LLC dba Lake Norman Cottage, The Zan Group, LLC dba The Cabin, and The Zan Group, LLC dba The Barrel, and was under a duty to collect, hold in trust, and remit North Carolina Sales Tax to the North Carolina Department of Revenue.
The charges against Zangardi resulted from an investigation by special agents with the Department’s Criminal Investigations Division in Raleigh and was prosecuted by the Special Prosecutions attorneys in the office of the Attorney General.