December 3, 10

NEWS / Landscape Company Employee Charged with Embezzlement and Tax Fraud

BIRMINGHAM—A federal grand jury today indicted a Leeds woman for embezzling from the landscape company where she worked and for not reporting the stolen income to the IRS, announced U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance.

The eight-count indictment filed in U.S. District Court charges STACIA WOODMAN, 36, with mail and tax fraud. It also seeks forfeiture of $298,126 as proceeds of illegal activity.

WOODMAN worked as a bookkeeper for J. Loper and Company, a Birmingham landscaping business. The charges outlined in the indictment are as follows: From about January 2006 to February 2009, WOODMAN used company checks to pay personal expenses. As a result of her fraud, the company lost about $298,126. Woodman failed to report more than $190,000 of the embezzled funds as income to the Internal Revenue Service from 2006 to 2009.

“Using the mail to further an embezzlement scheme is a federal crime, as is failing to report the additional income to the IRS,” Vance said. “Those are serious offenses that this office will prosecute.”

“Individuals who create fraudulent schemes that have no purpose but to defraud others and the taxpaying public run the risk of prosecution,” said IRS Criminal Investigation Special Agent in Charge Reginael D. McDaniel.

The mail fraud counts carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The tax fraud counts carry a maximum penalty of three years in prison.

This prosecution is part of President Barack Obama’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force. The president established the interagency task force to wage an aggressive, coordinated, and proactive effort to investigate and prosecute financial crimes. The task force includes representatives from a broad range of federal agencies, regulatory authorities, inspectors general, and state and local law enforcement who, working together, bring to bear a powerful array of criminal and civil enforcement resources. The task force is working to improve efforts across the federal executive branch, and with state and local partners, to investigate and prosecute significant financial crimes, ensure just and effective punishment for those who perpetrate financial crimes, combat discrimination in the lending and financial markets, and recover proceeds for victims of financial crimes.

The investigation of this matter was conducted by investigators from the FBI, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and the IRS. Assistant U.S. Attorney Lloyd Peeples is prosecuting the case.

http://birmingham.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel10/bh120110a.htm

Tags: criminal investigation,