WASHINGTON – Wayne A. Mounts, a resident of Mesa, Ariz., was sentenced yesterday to 63 months in prison for his role in conspiracies to commit money laundering and to defraud the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), announced the Justice Department and the IRS today. On July 25, 2011, a federal jury in Phoenix convicted Mounts and his co-defendant, Gino Carlucci, of both conspiracies after an eight-day trial.
According to the evidence presented at trial, Mounts and Carlucci, stole large sums of money from Joseph Flickinger and Flickinger’s clients and associates. Flickinger was a tax return preparer who had himself been sentenced in 2007 to 70 months in prison following a guilty plea to tax fraud conspiracy, as well as mail and wire fraud charges. Flickinger’s mail and wire fraud convictions related to a Ponzi-style investment scheme through which he had defrauded his clients.
After defrauding Flickinger of the money he obtained by fraud, Mounts and Carlucci used the money for their own personal benefit. Mounts withdrew more than $250,000 in cash from a bank account over a two-month period. He withdrew the money in amounts just under $10,000 to avoid having the bank report his withdrawals to authorities. Mounts and Carlucci spent an additional $150,000 of the funds to buy a 43-foot luxury boat which Carlucci concealed from the government for over two years.
Judge Kathryn H. Vratil, Chief Judge of the District of Kansas, sitting in Phoenix by special designation, ordered Mounts to pay $686,841 in restitution to the victims in Flickinger’s case and $80,787.80 in restitution to the IRS. Judge Vratil further entered a forfeiture order against Mounts for a money judgment in the amount of $722,841.00.
Sentencing for Gino Carlucci is set for Feb. 28, 2012, before Judge Vratil in Phoenix. Carlucci faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for conspiracy to commit money laundering; five years in prison for conspiracy to defraud the United States; and three years in prison for filing a false tax return.
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Report IRS Tax Fraud by Calling 1-888-482-6825 or by visiting
www.irsrewards.com
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