The CFO of a National Air Cargo (NAC) subsidiary and his wife have been found guilty of defrauding the parent group of $5m.
Michael Tew and his wife, Kimberley, denied 40 charges of wire fraud and 19 counts of money laundering, but the jury convicted them on all counts, except one of the latter.
According to court documents, Mr Tew became CFO of NAC Entities in 2015, with his wife providing the subsidiary “intermittent contractor services”.
The jury heard that beginning in 2018, and with the help of a fellow NAC Entities employee, the couple defrauded the carrier through submission of dozens of false invoices for services and items that were never provided, accumulating some $5m in the process.
Much of the money was, according to court testimony, “gambled away, while some $2.4m had been spent buying Bitcoin.
Mr Tew also failed to file federal income tax returns for tax years 2016 through 2019 on both his earned income and funds obtained from the fraud scheme, the court heard.
The indictment, which followed a joint FBI and IRS investigation, said there had been a conspiracy involving “multiple corporate entities”, four of which were “operated by or… associated with individuals who were contacts of both Mr and Mrs Tew”.
Head of the IRS Denver office Todd Martin said: “This verdict is an example of the impressive work of our special agents and reinforces the fact we work diligently to investigate tax crime.
“We are proud to have assisted the US Attorney’s office and the FBI in unravelling the Tews’ sophisticated scheme and holding them accountable for evading their taxes and stealing from National Air Cargo.”
US attorney Cole Finegan said: “Financial crimes are serious, and this verdict shows there are consequences to such actions.”
