Cincinnati Woman Pleads Guilty to Embezzlement Scheme, Defrauding IRS
CINCINNATI – Angelia Zwick, also known as Angelia Strunk, 46, of Cincinnati, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court today to charges related to an embezzlement scheme that defrauded her employer. Specifically, she pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and one count of willfully filing a false income tax return with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
Benjamin C. Glassman, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, Frank S. Turner II, Acting Special Agent in Charge, Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation, Cincinnati Field Office, and Jason Hayden, Acting Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Secret Service, announced the plea entered into today before U.S. District Judge Susan J. Dlott.
According to court documents, from approximately July 2009 through May 2013, Angelia Zwick worked for Sheakley Group, Inc. and devised a scheme to defraud her employer by embezzling funds in excess of her authorized pay and compensation. Zwick wired the stolen funds from her employer’s bank account to a bank account for Amerihealth and Life Solutions, LLC, a company owned by Zwick.
As a result, Zwick took more than $328,000 of workers’ compensation refunds intended for her employer or its clients and diverted those refunds into bank accounts that she controlled.
In addition, Zwick filed false income tax returns with the IRS for the 2010, 2011, and 2012 income tax years, for which she owes $121,810 in additional income taxes. For the 2010 income tax year, Zwick failed to report as income the funds she embezzled from her employer and she claimed false expenses for Amerihealth. For the 2011 and 2012 income tax years, Zwick claimed false expenses for Amerihealth.
"The IRS enforces the nation's tax laws, but also takes particular interest in cases where someone, for their own personal benefit, has taken what belonged to others,” said Frank S. Turner II, Acting Special Agent in Charge, IRS Criminal Investigation, Cincinnati Field Office. “To build faith in our nation’s tax system, honest taxpayers need to be reassured that everyone is paying their fair share.”
Wire fraud is a crime punishable by up to 20 years in prison and filing a false income tax return with the IRS carries a potential maximum sentence of three years in prison.
U.S. Attorney Glassman commended the investigation of this case by the IRS and U.S. Secret Service, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy Mangan, who is prosecuting the case.
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