Public Trust Crimes And Embezzlement
Public Trust Crimes & Embezzlement
Cieamauda Bradger
Elizabeth Clark
AIU Online
March 6, 2015
Abstract There are a wide variety of criminal offenses that bring attention to public corruption and their investigations. For this essay I will be focusing on embezzlement and its effect on the public. I present to you three investigations of embezzlement that occurred in 2014.
The first being of a former consultant to New York Democratic Senate Campaign Committee (“DSCC”) his conspiracy for tax fraud. The second of a former Florida County Employee and his sentencing for tax evasion. The third investigation is a discussion of a former executive director of “Affordable Housing” organization and her conspiracy to steal federal funds. Each of these individuals were sentenced to several years in prison due to their betrayal of the public’s trust.
Tax and Fraud Conspiracy …show more content…
A former consultant in Manhattan, New York, on Dec.
19, 2014, was sentenced to three years in prison and three years of supervised release (Southal, 2014), after being convicted in September 2014. Melvin Lowe is his name, he was a State Democratic of the Senate Campaign Committee (DSCC”). M. Lowe had conspired with New York State Senator John Sampson about defrauding the DSCC out of $100,000 for their own personal use. It was found and understood that M. Lowe had arrangements with a New Jersey-based political consultant to submit $100,000 as a false invoice in printing services to the DSCC (Southall, 2010). What was going here was you had J. Sampson who deceitfully approved the payment of the false
invoice.
Those false invoices were then sent to the New Jersey-based consultant by the DSCC. $75,000 was then sent to M. Lowe consulting company; 2007-2012 M. Lowe had received over $2.1 million in consulting income. However, Lowe only reported $25,000 of it on his federal income tax returns from 2007-2009. These went unfiled until 2010. However M. Lowe never filed his 2010 taxes, this behavior of not filing continued up into 2012. It was also discovered that M. Lowe never made any payments towards his taxes for 2000-2012. M. Lowe also caused quite a bit of confusion with his bank and checking account. False statements were made to his mortgage lender in regards to M. Lowe’s checking balance. M. Lowe had made claim to his lender that his checking balance was $65,000, when there was only $2,156 (Southall, 2010).
Tax Evasion Jesus Pons, of Coral Gables in Miami Florida is a former employee of the General Services Administration was sentence a little over four years of prison time and three years of supervision upon his release (Office of Public Affairs, 2014). J. Pons was also ordered to pay a restitution of $556,254. J. Pons on Oct 15, 2014 pled guilty to committed tax evasion. During 2007 and on into 2011, J. Pons was receiving funds illegally through what is known as kickback payments (Office of Public Affairs). Those kickbacks came from two county vendors. Basically, what you have here in this investigated case is a computer services manager at GSA of Miami-Dade County, who was responsible for managing and allocating its funds to the information technology projects for that particular county. J. Pons supervised and managed the tasks performed by vendors in that county. During 2007 on into 2011, J. Pons never made any reports of the illegal kickbacks he received. J. Pons brought in $166, 998 from those kickbacks that he did not report to the IRS, causing a tax loss of $556,254.
Conspiracy to Steal Federal Funds In this particular investigation Stacey Jackson the former Executive Director of New Orleans, Louisiana, was sentenced to prison for five years and three years of supervision upon release. S. Jackson was also ordered by the state to pay a restitution of over $424,000 to Housing and Urban Development (HUD), (U.S. Attorney 's Office, 2014). She was also ordered to pay restitution to the victims of her crime in the amount of $50,000. HUD is a non-profit corporation that provides grant money to cities to remediate damaged homes, in this case it was to be the homes effected by Hurricane Katrina. S. Jackson was responsible for the day-to-day management of a program call NOAH (New Orleans Affordable Homeownership) that was created after Hurricane Katrina (U.S. Attorney 's Office, 2014). She was to determine how much each contractor was to be paid. S. Jackson made special arrangements to overpay certain contractors with instructions for each of them pay her a portion of those payments in illegal kickbacks out of the NOAH money. This was all done by S. Jacksons paying the contractors for projects that could not be substantiated by invoices or any of the work they actually performed. S. Jackson took this crime to the extreme by using some of the NOAH funds to pay for renovation property she owned. Taking thing even more to the extremes, she falsified documents to a contractor as an attempt to mislead the federal grand jury’s investigation of the fraud.
Conclusion
These three individuals all committed an illegal act with their conspiracies. What they each did is seen as not only illegal, but also immoral and unethical of which undermined the integrity of the tax system. These individuals betrayed the public trust and the social good of providing funds for public services such as healthcare, education and public investments in infrastructures (in developed and/or developing world). M. Lowe, J. Pons, and S. Jackson all reduced their tax liabilities by falsely suppressing income and/or inflating expenditures, recording fictitious transactions, fundamentally committing illegal acts.
References
Office of Public Affairs. (2014, December 17). Former Miami-Dade County Employee Sentenced for Tax Evasion. Retrieved from Justice News: www.justice.gov
Southhall, A. (2010, December 29). Former Consultant to New York Democrats Is Sentences to 3 Years In Fraud. Retrieved from The New York Times: www.nytimes.com
U.S. Attorney 's Office. (2014, October 17). Former Executive Director of NOAH, Stacey Jackson, Sentence to Five Years in Prison. Retrieved from The FBI Federal Bureau of Investigation: www.fbi.gov
Cieamauda Bradger
Elizabeth Clark
AIU Online
March 6, 2015
Abstract There are a wide variety of criminal offenses that bring attention to public corruption and their investigations. For this essay I will be focusing on embezzlement and its effect on the public. I present to you three investigations of embezzlement that occurred in 2014.
The first being of a former consultant to New York Democratic Senate Campaign Committee (“DSCC”) his conspiracy for tax fraud. The second of a former Florida County Employee and his sentencing for tax evasion. The third investigation is a discussion of a former executive director of “Affordable Housing” organization and her conspiracy to steal federal funds. Each of these individuals were sentenced to several years in prison due to their betrayal of the public’s trust.
Tax and Fraud Conspiracy …show more content…
A former consultant in Manhattan, New York, on Dec.
19, 2014, was sentenced to three years in prison and three years of supervised release (Southal, 2014), after being convicted in September 2014. Melvin Lowe is his name, he was a State Democratic of the Senate Campaign Committee (DSCC”). M. Lowe had conspired with New York State Senator John Sampson about defrauding the DSCC out of $100,000 for their own personal use. It was found and understood that M. Lowe had arrangements with a New Jersey-based political consultant to submit $100,000 as a false invoice in printing services to the DSCC (Southall, 2010). What was going here was you had J. Sampson who deceitfully approved the payment of the false
invoice.
Those false invoices were then sent to the New Jersey-based consultant by the DSCC. $75,000 was then sent to M. Lowe consulting company; 2007-2012 M. Lowe had received over $2.1 million in consulting income. However, Lowe only reported $25,000 of it on his federal income tax returns from 2007-2009. These went unfiled until 2010. However M. Lowe never filed his 2010 taxes, this behavior of not filing continued up into 2012. It was also discovered that M. Lowe never made any payments towards his taxes for 2000-2012. M. Lowe also caused quite a bit of confusion with his bank and checking account. False statements were made to his mortgage lender in regards to M. Lowe’s checking balance. M. Lowe had made claim to his lender that his checking balance was $65,000, when there was only $2,156 (Southall, 2010).
Tax Evasion Jesus Pons, of Coral Gables in Miami Florida is a former employee of the General Services Administration was sentence a little over four years of prison time and three years of supervision upon his release (Office of Public Affairs, 2014). J. Pons was also ordered to pay a restitution of $556,254. J. Pons on Oct 15, 2014 pled guilty to committed tax evasion. During 2007 and on into 2011, J. Pons was receiving funds illegally through what is known as kickback payments (Office of Public Affairs). Those kickbacks came from two county vendors. Basically, what you have here in this investigated case is a computer services manager at GSA of Miami-Dade County, who was responsible for managing and allocating its funds to the information technology projects for that particular county. J. Pons supervised and managed the tasks performed by vendors in that county. During 2007 on into 2011, J. Pons never made any reports of the illegal kickbacks he received. J. Pons brought in $166, 998 from those kickbacks that he did not report to the IRS, causing a tax loss of $556,254.
Conspiracy to Steal Federal Funds In this particular investigation Stacey Jackson the former Executive Director of New Orleans, Louisiana, was sentenced to prison for five years and three years of supervision upon release. S. Jackson was also ordered by the state to pay a restitution of over $424,000 to Housing and Urban Development (HUD), (U.S. Attorney 's Office, 2014). She was also ordered to pay restitution to the victims of her crime in the amount of $50,000. HUD is a non-profit corporation that provides grant money to cities to remediate damaged homes, in this case it was to be the homes effected by Hurricane Katrina. S. Jackson was responsible for the day-to-day management of a program call NOAH (New Orleans Affordable Homeownership) that was created after Hurricane Katrina (U.S. Attorney 's Office, 2014). She was to determine how much each contractor was to be paid. S. Jackson made special arrangements to overpay certain contractors with instructions for each of them pay her a portion of those payments in illegal kickbacks out of the NOAH money. This was all done by S. Jacksons paying the contractors for projects that could not be substantiated by invoices or any of the work they actually performed. S. Jackson took this crime to the extreme by using some of the NOAH funds to pay for renovation property she owned. Taking thing even more to the extremes, she falsified documents to a contractor as an attempt to mislead the federal grand jury’s investigation of the fraud.
Conclusion
These three individuals all committed an illegal act with their conspiracies. What they each did is seen as not only illegal, but also immoral and unethical of which undermined the integrity of the tax system. These individuals betrayed the public trust and the social good of providing funds for public services such as healthcare, education and public investments in infrastructures (in developed and/or developing world). M. Lowe, J. Pons, and S. Jackson all reduced their tax liabilities by falsely suppressing income and/or inflating expenditures, recording fictitious transactions, fundamentally committing illegal acts.
References
Office of Public Affairs. (2014, December 17). Former Miami-Dade County Employee Sentenced for Tax Evasion. Retrieved from Justice News: www.justice.gov
Southhall, A. (2010, December 29). Former Consultant to New York Democrats Is Sentences to 3 Years In Fraud. Retrieved from The New York Times: www.nytimes.com
U.S. Attorney 's Office. (2014, October 17). Former Executive Director of NOAH, Stacey Jackson, Sentence to Five Years in Prison. Retrieved from The FBI Federal Bureau of Investigation: www.fbi.gov