Former Plan Trustee Sentenced for Embezzling over $1 Million, Income Tax Evasion

DAYTON – Timothy Hock, 51, currently of Chicago, was sentenced to 42 months in prison and ordered to pay more than $1.3 million in restitution for his role in the embezzlement from a bankruptcy estate and income tax evasion.

Hock was ordered to pay approximately $1 million in restitution to Domin-8 Enterprises Solutions, Inc. (Domin-8) and approximately $326,000 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

Carter M. Stewart, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, Guy A. Ficco, Acting Special Agent in Charge, Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation, and Angela L. Byers, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Cincinnati Field Division, announced the sentence handed down today by U.S. District Judge Thomas M. Rose.

According to court documents, Hock, who was a Certified Public Accountant, was the controller for Domin-8 when the company (and five other related entities) filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in September 2009. Domin-8 was a Mason, Ohio-based company that provided software to companies that managed rental properties.

During the bankruptcy proceedings, Hock was responsible for handling the company’s liquidation and transfer of assets, completing claims reviews and making appropriate distributions to various creditors of the company.

He embezzled approximately $1,080,289.73 which belonged to the bankruptcy estate of Domin-8 through a variety of means, including writing checks to himself from the trust’s bank accounts.

These checks were deposited into Hock’s personal bank account and then used for his personal expenditures. In addition, Hock wrote cashier’s checks from the trust’s bank accounts in order to purchase several personal vehicles, including two luxury vehicles, a 2006 Land Rover, a 2009 Jaguar XF and a 2010 Honda Civic for his daughter. Hock attempted to conceal his activities by submitting four false post confirmation reports in which he did not include all the payments he made to himself and all expenses paid on his behalf.

Hock committed tax evasion on his 2010, 2011 and 2012 tax returns by claiming that his taxable income was much less than it actually was. In total, he attempted to evade paying approximately $326,000 in federal income taxes for those years.

Hock pleaded guilty to the embezzlement and tax evasion charges on August 19, 2015.

“Tax evasion and bankruptcy fraud of this magnitude and with this degree of trickery, dishonesty and deceit, deserves to be punished,” said Guy A. Ficco, Acting Special Agent in Charge, IRS Criminal Investigation, Cincinnati Field Office. “The IRS, FBI, and U.S. Attorney’s Office remain determined and vigilant in ferreting out such schemes to cheat the honest taxpayers."

U.S. Attorney Stewart commended the cooperative law enforcement investigation, as well as Assistant United States Attorney Alex R. Sistla, who is prosecuting the case.