July 30, 2015

Former Waterville Valley Property Manager Will Serve Time for Defrauding Condominium Associations, Interfering with IRS

CONCORD, NH—Acting United States Attorney Donald A. Feith announced that United States District Judge Landya B. McCafferty sentenced Courtney Stone to a term of 18 months in federal prison based upon her previous pleas of guilty to five counts of Wire Fraud and one count of Corruptly Impeding the Due Administration of the Tax Laws. Stone, age 38, presently resides in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, but lived in Waterville Valley, New Hampshire, and worked for her family’s Waterville Valley property management company, at the time of the offenses for which she was sentenced.

The Wire Fraud offenses for which Stone was sentenced arose from Stone’s theft of funds from the bank accounts of 28 Waterville Valley condominium associations for which her family’s company served as property manager. The tax-related charge related to Stone’s counterfeiting Internal Revenue Service documents in an effort to convince third parties to release to her funds that the third parties were holding on behalf of the property management company. The IRS lawfully had levied the funds to satisfy the company’s federal payroll tax debt.

In addition to the prison term, Judge McCafferty sentenced Stone to a period of three years of supervised release, which Stone must serve after completing her prison term. While on supervised release, Stone will be required to abide by rules established by the court. If she fails to abide by those rules, she can be forced to serve additional time in prison. Finally, Judge McCafferty ordered Stone to pay $956,717.55 in restitution to the victim condominium associations and others who suffered losses.

This case was investigated by the Bedford Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration and the Waterville Valley (N.H.) Police Department. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Morse.