Accountants Behaving Badly: Pervert Pleads Guilty, ‘The Worst Kind of Thief,’ Jailed ‘City Boy’

Being involved in a prostitution-and-drug ring is a career-limiting move.

Former Lexington accountant pleads guilty in sex ring that victimized drug addicts [Lexington Herald Leader]
Mark Milslagle admitted taking part in a conspiracy that victimized drug-addicted women for sex. If his plea deal is accepted, the former Lexington accountant will be sentenced to five years and 10 months in prison, followed by 15 years under court supervision.

Milslagle, 50, pleaded guilty in federal court on Nov. 17 to a charge of conspiring to take part in human trafficking. He took part in a prostitution-and-drug ring that showed the desperate lengths young women would go to in order to get heroin and opioid pills such as oxycodone.

He was involved with Logan Ray Towery, a drug dealer who lived in Laurel County, KY, and headed the conspiracy.

Authorities say that Towery, 72, provided drugs to young women who were then passed on to Milslagle for sex. Towery has yet to be sentenced.

According to his LinkedIn page, Milslagle was the owner of MJM Tax & Accounting Services in Lexington, KY.

Former accountant at Chester County firm charged with theft [Daily Local News]
Donna Lam was charged with embezzling almost $170,000 from Pipe Services Corp., the company she worked for as its accountant.

Police in West Chester, PA, arrested Lam, 61, on Nov. 10 and charged her with felony counts of theft by unlawful taking, theft by deception, receiving stolen property, and forgery.

A criminal complaint states she told investigators that she had made fraudulent cash withdrawals from the company’s bank account, and wrote checks forged with the company owner’s name. Lam also allegedly used credit cards from Pipe Services to make personal purchases she was not authorized to.

Owner Megan Beardsley told Daily Local News:

“She almost caused my company to go bankrupt,” Beardsley said in an e-mail. “The theft has been all-consuming and devastating to say the least.” The thefts occurred during a period of personal turmoil in her family that left her less attentive than usual at work, she said.

“Donna Lam took total advantage of a very bad situation and acted as my friend while she was embezzling a lot of money from the company,” Beardsley wrote. “She is the worst kind of thief!”

Accountant who stole £188,000 to fund ‘City Boy’ lifestyle jailed [BBC News]
David Gowans, an accountant who used his employer “as a cash cow” to fund a “City Boy lifestyle,” was sentenced to four years in prison last week for fraud and false accounting between January 2013 and August 2017.

Gowans, 53, previously pleaded guilty to stealing £188,000 from Alpha Browett Taylor, and his attorney said Gowans has “no assets and is not in a position to pay compensation.”

Gowans spent the money on an extravagant “City Boy” lifestyle, including £30,000 on expensive holidays.

Authorities said Gowans changed the bank account details of Alpha Browett Taylor’s contractors to his own account. He also sent out fake invoices.

Other accountants behaving badly:

• Accountant charged with stealing $729K from three towns [Daily Hampshire Gazette]
• Hawks bust Western Cape municipal accountant for allegedly embezzling R4m [IOL]