On Oct. 27, 2014, in Fort Myers, Florida, Shawn Fuentes was sentenced to 60 months in prison. Fuentes was also ordered to pay restitution to Naples Concrete and Masonry of $1,951,459, restitution to the IRS of $624,728 and a money judgment of $106,979. Fuentes pleaded guilty on July 17, 2014 to mail fraud and tax evasion. According to court documents, Fuentes was the Chief Financial Officer of N.C.M. of Collier County, Inc., doing business as Naples Concrete and Masonry, which was headquartered in Naples, Florida. On numerous occasions, between October 2008 and February 2010, Fuentes fraudulently wrote checks payable to American Express and to Bank of
America drawn on the bank accounts of N.C.M. and then sent them to satisfy her own credit card debt. As part of the scheme, the fraudulent checks appeared to be written for legitimate business expenses in the accounting system utilized by the company. As a result of the scheme, she obtained in excess of $500,000. Fuentes also filed a 2009 tax return reporting a taxable income of approximately $35,148, omitting the amount of money misappropriated or stolen from Naples Concrete and Masonry. The actual taxable income that she had received was $822,060; therefore, she failed to report taxable income in the amount of approximately $786,912. For the calendar year 2009, Fuentes paid $2,671 in taxes rather than $262,081.
On Oct. 24, 2014, in Alexandria, Virginia, In Seon Lim, of Fairfax Station, Va., a former contracting official for the U.S. Department of the Army, was sentenced to 48 months in prison, three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay restitution of $250,000 to the Department of Defense and nearly $125,000 to the IRS. In addition, he must pay a forfeiture money judgment of $490,262. Lim pleaded guilty in July 2014 to conspiracy to commit bribery and honest services wire fraud; bribery; and attempting to interfere with and impede tax laws. Lim is among 18 individuals and one corporation, Nova Datacom, LLC, to plead guilty to federal charges in an investigation that uncovered this bribery and bid-rigging scheme. Overall, participants in the scheme stole over $30 million in government money through inflated and fictitious invoices. Lim was an assistant project manager and product director with the Program Executive Office Enterprise Information Systems, a part of the Army that provides infrastructure and informational management systems. As part of his work responsibilities, Lim coordinated work on a major contract, which, in turn, had numerous subcontracts. Lim secretly used his official position to enrich himself by soliciting and accepting gifts, payments and other things of value from government contractors – totaling more than $490,000 – in return for favorable official action. He also disclosed confidential bid information to the favored government contractors. Lim also admitted that he failed to report the bribes he received on tax returns for the years 2007 through 2011. He also failed to keep records that would allow him to file accurate records for 2012 and 2013.
On Oct. 22, 2014, in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Veronica Fairchild was sentenced to 33 months in prison and ordered to pay over $214,000 in restitution to the IRS for unpaid taxes. Fairchild was convicted in June 2014 of four counts of tax fraud. According to court documents, Fairchild failed to claim over $850,000 in income on her 2005 through 2008 income tax returns which she filed in 2010. Fairchild claimed the unreported income she received from performing private shows as an exotic dancer was a gift.