U.S. Department of Justice
KANSAS CITY, KAN. – A Kansas City, Mo., woman has been sentenced for not paying federal income taxes on part of nearly $2 million she embezzled from an employer, U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom said today.
Teresa Joyce Moore, 65, KCMO, was sentenced to 33 months in federal prison. She pleaded guilty to one count of filing false income tax returns.
In her plea, she admitted the crime occurred while she was working for Big W of Kansas City, Kan., a family run business specializing in manufacturing expandable polystyrene molding, processing and cutting equipment. She was a bookkeeper and officer manager with duties that included invoicing, tracking payroll and general bookkeeping.
In late 2007, the owners of Big W realized that Moore had defrauded the company. She created false invoices from legitimate vendors and prepared checks payable to the vendors. Then she created checks for the same amount payable to herself or her credit card company.
When the checks with the forged signature cleared the bank and was returned to Big W., Moore hid them and put the checks payable to the legitimate vendor in Big W’s records.
Moore used embezzled funds to purchase homes, furniture, appliances and other items. On her 2006 federal tax return she reported income of $31,990. In fact, she had received income of more than $451,000 through her embezzlement scheme.
On her 2007 federal tax return, she reported an income of $30,881. She did not report more than $507,000 she received from her embezzlement in 2007. Moore embezzled a total of nearly $2 million while working for Big W.
Grissom commended IRS - Criminal Investigation and Assistant U.S. Attorney Jabari Wamble for their work on the case.
