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Press Release

Gainesville Accountant Pleads Guilty To Wire Fraud And Tax Evasion

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of Virginia

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – Melvin Mooring, 54, of Gainesville, Va., pleaded guilty today to wire fraud and tax evasion in connection with the theft of approximately $3.3 million from a Chantilly, Va., company where Mooring had served as the chief financial officer.

            Neil H. MacBride, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia; Kathryn Keneally, Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Tax Division; and Thomas J. Kelly, Special Agent in Charge, Washington, D.C. Field Office, IRS-Criminal Investigation, made the announcement after the plea was accepted by United States District Judge Liam O’Grady. 

            Mooring faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison on the wire fraud count and five years in prison on the tax evasion count when he is sentenced on June 7, 2013.

            From 2000 to 2011, Mooring served as the chief financial officer, or CFO, of K&R Industries, a private company in Chantilly, Va.  In a statement of facts filed with his plea agreement, Mooring admitted that from 2004 to 2011, he stole approximately $3.3 million from the company via company checks and wire transfers, which he routed through the bank account of a company he controlled in order to conceal their fraudulent nature.  Mooring also admitted to altering company financial statements to conceal the fraud and to using the stolen funds for personal purposes, including for travel and to purchase real estate, automobiles, and jewelry.  Mooring also admitted to failing to report the stolen funds as income on his individual income tax returns for the years 2005 through 2010, resulting in approximately $865,000 in losses to the United States Treasury.

            This case was investigated by IRS-Criminal Investigation.  Assistant United States Attorney Paul J. Nathanson and Tax Division Trial Attorney Tracy L. Gostyla are prosecuting the case on behalf of the United States. 

A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia at http://www.justice.gov/usao/vae.  Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia at http://www.vaed.uscourts.gov or on https://pcl.uscourts.gov.
Updated March 18, 2015