A North Carolina mechanic was sentenced to prison today for wire fraud and filing a false income tax return, announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard E. Zuckerman of the Justice Department’s Tax Division, and U.S. Attorney R. Andrew Murray for the Western District of North Carolina.

Albert Strong, 59, a resident of Union, South Carolina, was sentenced to 36 months in prison by U.S. District Judge Robert J. Conrad, Jr. of the Western District of North Carolina. On April 12, 2018, Strong pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and one count of filing a false tax return for tax year 2013.

According to the documents filed with the court, Strong worked as a machinist/mechanic for a company at its Charlotte, North Carolina location. From 2008 to 2015, Strong embezzled funds from the company using a fraudulent purchasing and billing scheme. Strong created a purported parts vendor, and then caused the company to order fictitious parts from the vendor. As part of the scheme, Strong created false invoices and submitted them to the company for payment. In all, Strong embezzled approximately $1,488,000 from the victim company. Strong also failed to report the embezzled funds on his 2009 through 2015 tax returns, resulting in an approximate $450,000 tax loss.

In addition to the term of imprisonment imposed, Strong was order to serve two of supervised release and to pay restitution in the amount of $1,941,377.32.

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Zuckerman and U.S. Attorney Murray commended special agents of IRS-Criminal Investigation, U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and U.S. Secret Service, who conducted the investigation, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Taylor Phillips and Trial Attorney Mara Strier of the Tax Division, who prosecuted this case.

Additional information about the Tax Division and its enforcement efforts may be found on the division’s website.