Former Area Woman Sentenced for Concealing Assets in a Bankruptcy Proceeding
| U.S. Attorney’s Office October 21, 2009 |
ST. LOUIS, MO—Julie Lynn Wagman was sentenced to five months in prison, followed by five months of home confinement for concealing assets in her bankruptcy petition, Acting United States Attorney Michael W. Reap announced today. She was also ordered to pay $54,400 restitution to the Bankruptcy Trustee.
According to the facts filed with the court, on August 31, 2005, Julie Lynn Wagman filed a voluntary Chapter 7 bankruptcy petition. In her petition, she was required to list her assets on the statements and schedules, which are filed under the penalty of perjury. On her Schedule B, Personal Property, Wagman failed to provide accurate information concerning her jewelry, including a Rolex watch with a diamond dial and bezel, worth approximately $8,000; a diamond tennis bracelet worth approximately $4,400; and a diamond wedding ring worth approximately $42,000. She only disclosed to the bankruptcy court a wedding ring worth $300 and other furs and jewelry with a value of $200.
Subsequently, after the Bankruptcy Trustee received information from divorce proceedings in St. Louis County between the Wagman and her husband, the bankruptcy case was reopened. On September 5, 2007, Wagman again testified under oath in an examination conducted by the Bankruptcy Trustee and admitted that she owned the Rolex watch, the diamond ring and the tennis bracelet at the time she filed her bankruptcy petition, even though those items were not listed on her personal property schedule.
Wagman, 45, of Daytona Beach, Florida, pleaded guilty in July to one felony count of making false statements under penalties of perjury in a bankruptcy proceeding. She appeared before United States District Judge Catherine D. Perry.
“Bankruptcy laws help people get financial relief when they can no longer pay their creditors,” said Roland Corvington, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI in St. Louis. “That's why bankruptcy fraud must not be tolerated, and must be investigated and prosecuted, if the bankruptcy system is to serve its intended purpose.”
“This prosecution demonstrates that concealing assets in a bankruptcy case is a crime and will be punished,” stated Nancy J. Gargula, United States Trustee for Missouri, Arkansas, and Nebraska (Region 13). “I am grateful to Acting United States Attorney Michael Reap and the members of the Bankruptcy Fraud Working Group for Eastern Missouri for their efforts in investigating and prosecuting bankruptcy crimes.”
The Bankruptcy Fraud Working Group for Eastern Missouri includes representatives of the U.S. Attorney's Office, U.S. Trustee's Office, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Internal Revenue Service, U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and Social Security Administration, among others. The U.S. Trustee Program is the component of the Justice Department that protects the integrity of the bankruptcy system by overseeing case administration and litigating to enforce the bankruptcy laws.
Reap commended the work on the case by the St. Louis Office of the United States Trustee, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Assistant United States Attorney Rosemary Meyers, who handled the case for the U.S. Attorney’s Office.