Former Global Mobility Coordinator Pleads Guilty to Defrauding Employer and Tax Fraud Conspiracy

TAMPA—United States Attorney Robert E. O’Neill announces that Alesia Ann Spivey (46, Brandon) today pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud against her former employer, Jabil Circuit Inc. (“Jabil Circuit”), and one count of conspiracy to defraud the Internal Revenue Service and theft of government funds. Spivey faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in federal prison for both offenses.

According to the plea agreement, in 2010 and 2011, Spivey was employed in Jabil Circuit’s Global Mobility Group as a global mobility coordinator and a regional relocation program administrator in their St. Petersburg corporate offices. Her job responsibilities in these positions included working with Jabil Circuit’s relocation manager, Weichert Relocation Resources Inc. (“Weichert”), to assist Jabil Circuit’s employees with work-related changes in residence. Beginning around August 2010, and continuing through in or about October 2011, Spivey conspired with various individuals to defraud Jabil Circuit by requesting relocation benefits for non-existent employees. Spivey recruited various co-conspirators to pose as Jabil Circuit employees. These conspirator, opened, maintained, and otherwise made their bank accounts available to receive fraudulently obtained relocation benefits. To facilitate this aspect of the fraud, Spivey and other conspirators purchased “throw-away” mobile telephones, on which they received telephone calls from Weichert, to communicate about the particular relocation benefits packages being offered and to determine which bank to send any lump sum cash payments. In general, once a lump sum payment was made, the conspirators divided the fraud proceeds between themselves. Ultimately, the conspirators defrauded Jabil Circuit of $318,764.98 in relocation benefits and fees paid to furnish those benefits.

In a completely separate fraud scheme, between January and August 2012, Spivey engaged in a scheme with other individuals to file false income tax returns with the Internal Revenue Service in order to obtain fraudulent refunds to which the conspirators were not entitled. The conspirators carried out this tax fraud conspiracy by obtaining the means of identification of various persons, including the names, dates of birth, and Social Security numbers of such persons. The means of identification were then used by the conspirators to prepare and electronically file approximately 217 false and fraudulent federal income tax returns. In many cases, the individuals whose identities appeared on these fraudulent returns did not know Spivey and the other conspirators were filing tax returns on their behalf. In total, these 217 fraudulent returns claimed approximately $1,554,493.00 in bogus tax refunds. Ultimately, the IRS paid out $551,472.90 in refunds to the conspirators.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Simon Gaugush.