It’s one factor to steal from the federal government, however stealing from kids is a complete lot worse. Sadly, that’s exactly what one New Mexico faculty district worker did. Kristy Stock was sentenced to 18 months in federal jail for her position in a scheme to steal and resell greater than 3,000 iPods meant for Native American college students.
A particulars the fees in opposition to Stock of tax fraud and transportation of stolen items. According to her plea settlement and court docket paperwork, the scheme started again in 2013 when she was answerable for a program for the Central Consolidated School District of New Mexico designed to supply gadgets to Native American college students dwelling on tribal reservations.
While overseeing this system, Stock was supposed to make use of federal grant cash to purchase iPods to distribute to college students. However, thanks to assist from different conspirators together with her buddy James Bender and Saurabh Chawla, the group ended up transport the stolen iPods to Maryland the place they had been listed on eBay earlier than being offered at a “substantial” markup.
Due to his personal account having beforehand been suspended as a result of safety considerations, Chawla was compelled to make use of Bender’s eBay account to checklist the stolen gadgets for public sale, with Bender serving as an middleman. Later, between 2015 and 2018, Stock communicated instantly with Chawla, offering information on the make, mannequin, shade and amount of gadgets earlier than agreeing on a worth and placing them up for public sale.
All instructed, Stock admitted that she made greater than $800,000 from promoting stolen iPods between 2013 and 2018. To make issues worse, Stock additionally filed fraudulent tax returns on the earnings, leading to tax lack of round $270,000. That stated, whereas Stock faces an 18-month jail sentence, she truly acquired off lighter than her co-conspirator Chawla, who was sentenced to 66 months after failing to pay greater than $700,000 in taxes. Meanwhile, Bender was sentenced to only three hundred and sixty six days in jail.
So whereas Stock and her crew ultimately acquired caught, the actual lesson is that right here is that crime doesn’t pay–particularly for those who’re stealing from kids after which mendacity in your taxes about your ill-gotten earnings.
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