Woman from Ash Grove indicted over wire fraud scheme involving her Springfield employer
Carrie Leigh Long was charged on Wednesday
A woman from Ash Grove, Missouri has been indicted by a federal grand jury for a wire fraud scheme where she embezzled more than $362,000 from her Springfield, MO employer, according to a news release from the US Attorney’s Office in the Western District of Missouri.
52-year-old Carrie Leigh Long was charged on Wednesday, November 17, with a 24-count indictment that was returned by a federal grand jury in Springfield.
The same news release states, “Long was employed by Executive Coach Builders, Inc. to provide in-house accounting services to the company and to Executive Bus Builders, Inc. The companies are headquartered in Springfield but do business worldwide with factories and sales offices in Missouri and California. The companies build luxury buses, coaches, and limousines. Long was hired in April 2014.”
Long was alleged to have stolen $362,175 from the companies between February 2016 and September 2020.
Long is also charged with filing false tax returns that did not report that income, and she failed to pay approximately $902.226 in employment taxes the companies owned to the IRS.
The news release states later on, “Long allegedly used her position as an in-house accountant for the companies, and her access to the companies’ check stock, to regularly write checks against the companies’ bank accounts for unauthorized payments to herself. The indictment also alleges that Long stole money from the companies by filling in unauthorized amounts on some pre-signed checks and making such checks payable to herself. Long also allegedly stole money from the companies by forging signatures on the companies’ checks, filling in unauthorized amounts on the checks, and making such checks payable to herself.
As part of the scheme, the indictment says, Long did not claim the unauthorized payments as personal income on her individual income tax returns from 2016 through 2020.
Beginning in April 2019, Long allegedly ceased to make regular payments to IRS for the employment taxes the companies owed the IRS. Long concealed her actions from company officials, the indictment says, by altering the companies’ bank account statements and misrepresenting on her financial reports that the payments had been made. Long caused the companies to fail to pay over to the IRS approximately $902,226 of taxes owed to the IRS for two quarters of 2019 and one quarter of 2020.
When an agent from the Internal Revenue Service attempted to collect those delinquent tax payments, the indictment says, Long falsely claimed they had been paid and provided altered bank account statements.”
Carrie Long was charged with six counts of failure to pay employment taxes, 17 counts of wire fraud, one count of obstructing the administration of internal, and five counts of filing a tax return.
You can view the full release here.