Las Vegas-Area Accountant Sentenced To Prison For Bribery And Tax Fraud

LAS VEGAS - A Nevada man was sentenced Wednesday to 13 months in prison for his role in separate bribery and tax fraud conspiracies.

According to court documents and statements made in court, Dustin M. Lewis, of Henderson, was a certified public accountant employed by Las Vegas-based accounting firm L.L. Bradford & Company. Beginning in February 2015 through about February 2016, Lewis conspired with and paid a public official with the U.S. Department of Interior’s Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) more than $150,000 in bribes and kickbacks. In exchange for those payments, Lewis’ co-conspirator, who was a member of a selection committee responsible for awarding government contracts to perform auditing services for USBR programs, steered an audit contract to L.L. Bradford.

Lewis and his co-conspirator also conspired to file a false 2013 corporate tax return and other tax forms on behalf of six business entities that collectively claimed over $11 million in fraudulent business deductions. Lewis’ conduct caused a tax loss to the IRS of more than $1.5 million.             

In addition to his prison sentence, U.S. District Judge Andrew P. Gordon for the District of Nevada ordered Lewis to serve three years of supervised release and to pay approximately $704,002 in restitution. The court also imposed a criminal forfeiture money judgment against Lewis in the amount of $704,002.

Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stuart M. Goldberg of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and U.S. Attorney Jason M. Frierson for the District of Nevada made the announcement.

IRS Criminal Investigation, the FBI and the U.S. Department of Interior’s Office of Inspector General investigated the case.

Trial Attorney Patrick Burns of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven Myhre for the District of Nevada prosecuted the case.