Plus, an accountant is accused of keeping a domestic slave at his house and an accounting officer is going to jail for swindling his firm out of £3 million.
Former Walton Beverage financial officer sent to jail for embezzling company funds [The Bellingham Herald]
David McLeod, CPA, the former CFO of Walton Beverage in Ferndale, WA, will spend eight months in jail for embezzling roughly $150,000 from the company over several years.
He was ordered to pay $150,000 in restitution to Walton Beverage, according to his July 25 sentencing. He has already paid $110,000 and will continue making payments on the remaining $40,000.
McLeod was using an unauthorized American Express card to steal money from Walton Beverage. He would use the card to issue himself reimbursement checks disguised to look like he had paid a Walton Beverage supplier with his own personal funds. McLeod falsified American Express statements to justify the reimbursement.
McLeod was fired from Walton Beverage on Sept. 1, 2017, court records show.
Fraudster accountant McKeown given 48 hours to repay £4k [Belfast Telegraph]
Darien McKeown, an accountant who defrauded more than £4,000 from a recruitment company, was ordered by a judge on Aug. 1 to complete 60 hours of community service.
District Judge Mark Hamill told McKeown the only reason he was not imposing a jail sentence “is on the basis that the money is paid back within 48 hours.”
McKeown had earlier pleaded guilty to a single count of fraud by false representation, committed between Dec. 10, 2017 and Jan. 9, 2018. It was revealed that McKeown had been submitting fraudulent timesheets.
Tax accountant receives probation for theft [WNEP]
Melanie Huynh, owner of Century Accounting and Tax Service in Williamsport, PA, was sentenced to five years of probation in late July for overcharging a client by almost $70,000.
Court documents say Huynh ripped off the owner of Future Nails, a salon near Williamsport, for tax services between 2011 and 2013, and also failed to file taxes for that client on time.
Accountant accused of keeping domestic slave granted bail [Belfast Telegraph]
Osarobo Izekor, an accountant accused of keeping a Nigerian woman with the mental age of a 4-year-old as a domestic slave in Belfast, was granted bail on Aug. 1.
Izekor, 33, is to be released from custody under conditions including a £15,000 cash surety bond and a ban on entering the city. He is charged with requiring a person to perform forced or compulsory behavior. His wife, Precious Izekor, 26, is already out on bail on the same charge.
They allegedly kept the 31-year-old woman in servitude at their home between Dec. 31, 2016 and Oct. 1, 2017. The alleged victim claimed that over a five-year period spent with the couple, she was beaten, mentally abused, and called a slave.
The couple deny any wrongdoing, claiming they just tried to help her settle and obtain work in the U.K.
Accountant gets 3 years for swindling his firm out of £3m [Law360]
Ben Wiley was sentenced to three years and eight months in prison on Aug. 5 after the former DG Robson employee pled guilty to one count of fraud and another of transferring criminal property.
Wiley, 28, admitted to abusing his position as DG Robson’s accounting officer by transferring £2.94 million ($3.47 million) belonging to the mechanical services contractor—a subsidiary of building services firm T Clarke PLC—into bank accounts that he controlled between May 2013 and October 2016.
Wiley pled guilty early in the proceedings and his cooperation in the investigation were contributing factors to a lower sentence, the court heard. The maximum sentence for fraud by abuse of position is 10 years in prison.
