Ash Grove Woman Sentenced for $480,000 Fraud Scheme

SPRINGFIELD, MO—David M. Ketchmark, Acting United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that an Ash Grove, Missouri woman was sentenced in federal court today for stealing nearly $480,000 from her Nixa, Missouri employer in a fraud scheme.

Carla Jean Wilson, 54, of Ash Grove, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Richard E. Dorr to three years and one month in federal prison without parole. The court also ordered Wilson to pay $611,000 in restitution.

On April 12, 2012, Wilson pleaded guilty to forging checks from her employer and to filing a false tax return.

Wilson, an accountant, was employed at Kitchenland USA Inc. as an office manager beginning in August 2004 until she was terminated on September 20, 2010. Wilson admitted that she was involved in a scheme to embezzle funds from Kitchenland between January 19, 2007 and September 20, 2010. During that time period, Wilson obtained signed bank checks drawn on Kitchenland’s bank account, which she made payable to herself. Wilson received a total of $479,803 in unauthorized payments from checks drawn on Kitchenland’s account.

Wilson failed to report the embezzled funds as income when she filed federal tax returns for the years 2007 through 2010, thus significantly underreporting her income. Wilson pleaded guilty to failing to report approximately $223,776 in income that she received in 2009 as a result of her fraud scheme.

This case was prosecuted by Supervisory Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael S. Oliver. It was investigated by the FBI and IRS-Criminal Investigations.