A Missoula, MT-based accountant—who defrauded clients by using their cash payments, which were intended to pay their income taxes, for his own personal expenses—was sentenced on July 31 to 24 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release, U.S. Attorney Kurt Alme said.
William Arthur Clawson, 54, was also ordered to pay full restitution of $1,309,591 to the victims, as well as a $20,000 criminal fine.
Clawson pleaded guilty last February to wire fraud and to corruptly endeavoring to obstruct and impede the administration of the internal revenue laws, authorities said.
The government alleged that from about 2016 to 2021, Clawson used his businesses, Quantum Business Solutions and Endeavor Financial Insights, to defraud clients.
He offered accounting and tax preparation services to clients in Montana, Washington, and Oklahoma, who were engaged in the cash-heavy medical marijuana industry. Clawson promised to assess the taxes owned by his clients and receive cash payments from them that he would use to pay his fees and the taxes they owed.
Instead, Clawson paid only a small portion of the taxes his clients owed and used the remainder of the money on his personal expenses and unrelated debts. Through Clawson’s actions, his clients unknowingly fell behind in paying their taxes, authorities said.
The government further alleged that between 2019 and 2020, one of Clawson’s clients came under IRS scrutiny because of unpaid taxes.
An IRS revenue officer contacted the unnamed company as part of efforts to collect taxes owed. The company called Clawson, who was serving as its accountant, and he instructed his client to not communicate with the IRS officer and said he would take care of the reported issue.
Clawson falsely told the IRS officer that his client had cash flow issues that were making it difficult for the company to pay its taxes.
“Clawson acted corruptly by making other false statements to the IRS officer on the company’s behalf that Clawson knew would impede the government’s tax collection efforts,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Montana said in a media release. “Clawson did this to conceal his misappropriation of funds the company gave him to pay its taxes.”
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