Date: November 2, 2023 Contact: newsroom@ci.irs.gov St. George, UT — A Washington County resident pleaded guilty today to wire fraud and making a false statement on a tax return after she abused her Homeowners Association (HOA) position of power to divert thousands of dollars to her personal account. She then underreported her personal income to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). According to court documents, Sharon Lee Ann Gordon of Hurricane, Utah, embezzled approximately over $232,000 from four Lava Bluff HOA bank accounts between 2016 and March 2022. In execution of the scheme, Gordon diverted the funds electronically by transferring them directly to her personal account, writing checks to herself and her boyfriend and forging other board members' signatures, depositing checks representing HOA member fees directly into her personal accounts, writing checks to casinos from HOA accounts, and withdrawing cash from HOA accounts. In April 2022, Gordon electronically filed a Form 1040 U.S. Individual Income Tax Return with the Internal Revenue Service that falsely stated her total income for 2021 was $13,502, when in fact she received at least $20,000 more. Additionally, in tax years 2017 through 2021, Gordon failed to report income derived from her scheme to defraud Lava Bluff HOA. As a result, Gordon was ordered by the court to pay $20,490 in restitution to the IRS for tax loss from unreported income between 2017 and 2021. Gordon is also ordered to pay the remaining $63,448.32 from the $232,078 in restitution to Lava Bluff HOA. To date, Gordon has paid the HOA $168,629.68 in restitution. Gordon pleaded guilty to wire fraud and false statement on a tax return. She is scheduled to be sentenced at a later date in courtroom 2B at the St. George Courthouse before a U.S. District Court Judge in St. George, Utah. U.S. Attorney Trina A. Higgins of the District of Utah made the announcement. The case is being investigated jointly by the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (CI) and the FBI Salt Lake City Field Office, St. George Resident Agency. Assistant United States Attorney Stephen P. Dent of the District of Utah is prosecuting the case. 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.
