Date: Jan. 10, 2024 Contact: newsroom@ci.irs.gov Newark, NJ — A Passaic County, New Jersey, man today admitted his role in embezzling funds from clients of his bookkeeping business, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger announced today. Richard Winter of Pompton Lakes pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Esther Salas in Newark federal court to an information charging him with one count of wire fraud and one count tax evasion. According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court: From January 2016 through December 2019, Winter, while serving as a bookkeeper for various companies, devised a scheme to fraudulently misappropriate hundreds of thousands of dollars from his clients. Winter accomplished this fraud by authorizing bank wire transfers from the victim companies, diverting vendor payments to his own bank accounts through an online payment portal, and issuing checks payable to "cash" from the victim companies and depositing those checks into his bank accounts. Winter failed to file tax returns reporting the income he received from his fraud for tax years 2016 through 2019. The wire fraud charge carries a maximum potential penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, or twice the gross gain or loss from the offense, whichever is greatest. The tax evasion charge carries a maximum potential penalty of five years in prison and a $100,000 fine, or twice the gross gain or loss from the offense. Sentencing is scheduled for July 9, 2024. U.S. Attorney Sellinger credited special agents of IRS Criminal Investigation (CI), under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Tammy Tomlins in Newark; and U.S. Postal Inspection Service in Newark, under the direction of Inspector in Charge Christopher A. Nielsen, Philadelphia Division, with the investigation leading to the today's guilty plea. The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Shontae D. Gray of the Economic Crimes Unit in Newark. 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. CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code, obtaining a more than a 90 percent federal conviction rate. The agency has 20 field offices located across the U.S. and 12 attaché posts abroad.
