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Accountants Behaving Badly: Train Station Turd, College Crook, Fake CPA’s Fraud

Plus, a New South Wales accountant got jail time for stealing moola from clients, and a Texas tax preparer is going to prison for a while for defrauding the U.S.

Drunk trainee accountant who pushed man onto Tube tracks has sentence increased [The Times]
Mathuram Muthuraja, a trainee accountant who drunkenly pushed another man onto the London Underground tracks last year, had his three-year sentence increased to five years on Oct. 9.

Mathuram Muthuraja

He was originally sentenced last July for attempting to cause grievous bodily harm.

Muthuraja, 23, pushed another passenger off the platform at Barons Court Tube station in west London last October, shortly before a train was expected to arrive.

The victim narrowly missed the live running rail and the approaching train stopped before it reached the station, but he was knocked unconscious and had to be pulled back onto the platform by onlookers.

Former St. Bon’s accountant sentenced to 3 years for $549K fraud [CBC]
Kimberly Stagg, a former accountant at St. Bonaventure’s College, was sentenced to three years in jail on multiple charges for defrauding her then employer of more than $500,000 over a period of almost five years.

Stagg, 33, pleaded guilty to a charge of fraud over $5,000 in June.

Stagg forged bank statements and sent email transfers of money to herself, according to a statement of facts read during the sentencing hearing on Oct. 9. She used the money to pay bills and take a trip to Disney.

Authorities learned that Stagg had multiple bank accounts, and that $548,909 was transferred to her bank accounts from St. Bonaventure’s accounts—where she was the only person with access.

Scott Douglas Cutting Sr. gets 2 years in federal prison for filing fake tax returns [Palm Springs Desert Sun]
Scott Cutting, a tax preparer who portrayed himself as a CPA even though his license expired more than 30 years ago, was sentenced in Los Angeles to over two years in federal prison on Oct. 10 for filing fraudulent federal tax returns that generated more than $1 million in refunds.

He also was ordered to pay the IRS nearly $1.4 million in restitution.

Cutting, 70, was convicted in April of six counts of aiding and assisting in the preparation of false and fraudulent tax returns.

New South Wales accountant sentenced [Money Management]
Nicholas Ellis, an accountant and former financial advisor, was sentenced to three years in prison for making false or misleading statements to obtain money from clients and fraudulent misappropriation of client funds.

Nicholas Ellis

Ellis admitted to stealing approximately $562,000 of client funds, some of which he had used to buy a house.

Texas tax return preparer sentenced to prison for defrauding the United States [Justice Department]
Stacey Anderson was sentenced to five years in prison on Oct. 9 for filing false federal tax returns.

Anderson, who owned Anderson Professional Tax Services out of her home, prepared 2013 and 2014 tax returns claiming false business items and/or education tax credits, in order to fraudulently increase her clients’ tax refunds from the IRS.

Anderson also filed a 2014 tax return for herself, falsely claiming an education credit and reporting a fraudulent income amount. The total tax loss generated from this scheme exceeded $10 million.

In addition to her jail sentence, Anderson was sentenced to three years supervised release and was ordered to pay restitution of more than $8.1 million.