Gillette Man Sentenced to Federal Prison for Wire Fraud and Tax Violations

A Gillette man was recently sentenced to federal prison and ordered to pay over $200,000 in restitution for tax violations and wire fraud. Sheridan Media’s Ron Richter has the details.

U.S. Attorney for the District of Wyoming Bob Murray announced Wednesday that 37-year-old David Jackson of Gillette was sentenced to 46 months in federal prison for wire fraud and willful failure to collect or pay over tax to the IRS. U.S. District Court Judge Nancy Freudenthal also sentenced Jackson to 36 months’ imprisonment for the charge of filing a false tax return. The sentences will run concurrent to one another. Jackson was also ordered to pay $203,251 in restitution and a $300 special assessment. According to the Department of Justice, from October 2017 to April 2019, Jackson worked as the office manager for a Gillette-based company. Part of Jackson’s duties included handling all financial aspects of his employer’s business, including collecting, accounting for and paying over trust fund taxes to the IRS on behalf of his employer. Jackson also owned and operated a taxi business in Gillette and Casper.

Between February 2018 and April 2019, Jackson committed wire fraud by embezzling money from his employer, diverting money from the employer’s bank account and misusing a company credit card for his own personal expenditures, to include expenses associated with his taxi business. As part of his scheme to defraud his employer, Jackson also failed to account for and pay over to the IRS the employer’s trust fund taxes, instead diverting those funds for his own personal use, to include paying expenses associated with his taxi business. In January 2019, Jackson filed a 2018 individual income tax return with the IRS in which he failed to report over $136,000 in income from several sources, namely, the monies he embezzled from his employer and other income he earned that year. The case was investigated by the IRS Criminal Investigation Department and the Gillette Police Department.