Date: January 5, 2023 Contact: newsroom@ci.irs.gov A former Overland Park, Kansas, man was sentenced in federal court today for embezzling $3.1 million from his employer and failing to pay nearly $1 million in taxes owed to the federal government and the state of Kansas. Richard Scott Simkins, currently a resident of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Roseann Ketchmark to six years and six months in federal prison without parole. The court ordered Simkins to pay $2,032,282 in restitution to Genesys Industrial Corporation (in addition to $145,742 in restitution previously paid after Simkins liquidated his 401K plan); $1,005,000 in restitution to Travelers Insurance Company; $867,713 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service; and $129,131 in restitution to the Kansas Department of Revenue. Simkins must forfeit to the government his residential property in Overland Park and pay a money judgment that represents the proceeds of his embezzlement. Simkins was the chief financial officer for Genesys Industrial Corporation, doing business as Genesys Systems Integrator in Kansas City, Missouri. Genesys engineers and designs automated production systems and production machinery. On Jan. 20, 2022, Simkins pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud and one count of filing a false tax return. Simkins admitted that he embezzled at least $3.1 million from Genesys from 2013 to his termination in September 2020 by writing checks on the Genesys account to pay the personal expenses of himself and a co-worker whom he supervised. Simkins embezzled $2,853,370 for himself and aided and abetted another Genesys employee's embezzlement of approximately $325,000 from the company, for a total of $3,183,024. Cheryl A. Rose, of Freeman, Mo., the accounting manager at Genesys, pleaded guilty in a separate but related case to conspiracy to commit mail fraud and awaits sentencing. According to court documents, for at least eight years, on hundreds of occasions, Simkins signed Genesys checks to pay for personal spending. His embezzlement increased from at least $144,107 in 2013 to at least $588,717 in 2019. As a result, Genesys paid over $500,000 to investigate, document and remediate Simkins's and Rose's embezzlement. Simkins also admitted that he failed to report the stolen income on his federal income tax returns and his Kansas state personal income tax returns. The total federal tax loss caused by Simkins's fraudulent behavior was at least $867,713; the total Kansas state tax loss was at least $129,131, for a total federal and state tax loss of at least $996,844. Simkins spent his tax-free embezzled proceeds on retail purchases, including jewelry; travel to Las Vegas, Nevada; Los Angeles, California; Orlando, Florida; Scottsdale, Arizona; and Estes Park, Colorado; tickets to Disneyland and Disneyworld; vehicles for himself and his family; household expenses, including pool and lawn care; school expenses, including college tuition, fraternity payments, and extracurricular activities; rent for himself and relatives; and personal mortgage payments. This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Kathleen D. Mahoney. It was investigated by IRS-Criminal Investigation and the FBI.
