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October 2, 2023

Accountants Behaving Badly: Ex-BDO Puerto Rico MP Charged, Sick Demands, Stealing $365K

Plus, chartered accountant jailed after stealing £86,000, and bankrupt New Zealand accountant sentenced for swindling horse trainers.

Ex-Puerto Rico officials charged in corruption probe [Bloomberg]
Fernando Scherrer-Caillet, ex-managing partner of BDO Puerto Rico, was one of six people indicted by the U.S. Justice Department on March 11 over allegations of theft, money laundering and wire fraud, escalating federal investigations that have been swirling around the bankrupt U.S. territory.

Fernando Scherrer

Another one of the six charged, Angela Avila-Marrero, the head of the commonwealth’s health insurance administration until last month, is accused of steering contracts totaling $2.5 million to BDO and providing internal information to the company. BDO then subcontracted the work and paid unauthorized commissions, which inflated the cost of the contracts, according to the Justice Department.

A spokesperson for BDO at an outside public relations firm didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Accountant told ex he would only pay child maintenance if she slept with him [The Sun]
Adam Wood told his ex-girlfriend he would only pay child support for their kids if she had “some sort of sexual contact with him,” a court heard.

Wood, 33, allegedly bombarded Katie Hall with 77 aggressive text messages, threw tantrums during their seven-year relationship and would break furniture, and she said he once smashed her head into a mirror.

Wood admitted to the harassment and received a two-year restraining order and unpaid work.

Bucks County woman charged with stealing over $365,000 from medical company [The Morning Call]
Shae Reber was charged on March 13 with stealing $365,109 over six years from a Michigan medical company that employed her as an accountant.

Shae Reber

Reber, 43, of Milford Township, PA, was arraigned on seven felony counts of using a company credit card for personal expenses and vacations as well as unauthorized check and wire transfers to inflate her annual salary by tens of thousands of dollars, authorities said.

Reber’s alleged personal purchases on the card included trips to Chick-fil-A restaurant, air travel tickets, Walt Disney World hotel reservations and a weekend luxury suite stay in upstate New York. She also made BJs Wholesale and iTunes purchases and paid for a Netflix subscription, authorities said.

Other accountants behaving badly:

  • Crooked Cannock accountant jailed after stealing £86,000 [Express & Star]
  • Milaca tax preparer admits to 15 tax-related felonies [St. Cloud Times]
  • Waikato horse trainers betrayed by Matamata accountant who ‘bled them dry’ [Stuff]
  • Iowa tax preparer pleads guilty to filing false returns [Associated Press]

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