Date: April 7, 2025
Contact: newsroom@ci.irs.gov
Seattle — A Fox Island, Washington man was indicted late last month by a federal grand jury for four counts of wire fraud, two counts of mail fraud, four counts of money laundering, and four counts of making and subscribing a false tax return, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Teal Luthy Miller. John S. Winslow, a former financial advisor at a national financial services firm, allegedly stole over $920,000 in life savings and inheritance from a former client, a widow in her 70s.
“Mr. Winslow took advantage of the victim’s trust to steal from her bank and brokerage accounts,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Miller. “He used the victim’s funds to upgrade his lifestyle – buying an island home, installing a hot tub and new appliances, and purchasing a new car and a diamond necklace.”
According to the indictment, Winslow moved funds out of the victim’s brokerage accounts with the financial services firm and into her outside bank account in multiple transactions. He did this to conceal his fraud by placing the victim’s funds outside of the firm’s surveillance system. From the victim’s outside bank account, the funds were transferred into Winslow’s bank accounts, again in multiple transactions. Winslow used his trusted status with the victim to further the fraud. He visited the victim at her home and instructed the victim to call the bank and put the call on speaker. He then told the victim what she should tell the bank. Winslow used the victim’s funds for his own benefit. He falsely claimed to the victim that if she transferred money to him, he would repay her at a higher interest rate than what she was getting from her banks.
To hide the illicit nature of the funds, Winslow allegedly funneled the victim’s funds through extra layers of transactions. For example, Winslow purchased gold coins from an online gold retailer in multiple transactions. He then sold those gold coins to a local brick-and-mortal gold retailer before depositing the proceeds into his bank accounts.
During the fraud-scheme period, Winslow allegedly failed to report the funds that he stole from the victim on his federal tax returns, resulting in a tax loss of approximately $254,000.
Winslow was arraigned on the indictment and entered a ‘not guilty’ plea on March 31, 2025. Trial in front of U.S. District Judge Tiffany M. Cartwright is scheduled for June 2, 2025.
The wire fraud, mail fraud, and money laundering counts are representative acts of the alleged scheme and are punishable by up to 20 years in prison. The false-tax-return counts are punishable by up to 3 years in prison.
The charges in the indictment are only allegations. A person is presumed innocent unless and until he or she is proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
The case is being investigated by the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI). The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Yunah Chung.
IRS-CI is the criminal investigative arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money-laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more. IRS-CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code, obtaining a 90% federal conviction rate. The agency has 20 field offices located across the U.S. and 14 attaché posts abroad.