Richmond federal court handed down the decision on Dec. 1. Photo by Michael Schwartz.
Sean M. Weaver, 34, received a sentence of 71 months for money laundering and mail fraud that bilked the Virginia Department of Taxation and the Texas state tax system using inflated claims for corporate sales and use tax refunds filed while he worked at Ryan LLC, a large tax services firm headquartered in Dallas.
Weaver, who led a team out of Ryan’s Arlington, Virginia, office, was sentenced Dec. 1 and ordered to report to begin his prison term on Dec. 2. The judge recommended that Weaver serve his sentence at FCI Seagonville, a low-security federal prison in Seagoville, Texas, or another facility near Dallas in order to be close to his family.
U.S. District Court Judge John Gibney presided in the case. It was investigated by the FBI’s Richmond field office, as well as the IRS criminal investigation unit and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.
Dominick Gerace and Michael Dry handled the case from the U.S. Attorney’s Richmond office.
Weaver’s crimes occurred between October 2011 and December 2014 and consisted of manipulating data and falsifying invoices of two large unidentified corporate clients of Ryan. He caused the clients to inflate the amount of sales and use taxes they actually paid to the states. That resulted in larger refunds, larger fees for Ryan and thereby, larger bonuses for himself.
As a result, Virginia and Texas paid out inflated tax refunds of $19.01 million and $1.41 million, respectively.
Court records state that Ryan internally uncovered Weaver’s scheme, terminated him immediately and reported the incidents to the government voluntarily.
Weaver, who personally received more than $350,000 in bonuses as a result of his crimes, agreed to forfeit $250,000 that was already seized by the federal government.
On paper, Weaver was ordered to pay restitution of $20.42 million to the victims, though it’s unlikely he’ll ever personally repay that amount. Texas has already been repaid the $1.41 million by Ryan LLC, court records show. Virginia will likely have the ability to exercise some form of clawback provisions in attempt to get the money back from the two companies that received the refunds or from Ryan.
A resident of Alexandria, Weaver pleaded guilty to the charges in August in Richmond federal court. He faced up to 30 years in prison.
Richmond federal court handed down the decision on Dec. 1. Photo by Michael Schwartz.
Sean M. Weaver, 34, received a sentence of 71 months for money laundering and mail fraud that bilked the Virginia Department of Taxation and the Texas state tax system using inflated claims for corporate sales and use tax refunds filed while he worked at Ryan LLC, a large tax services firm headquartered in Dallas.
Weaver, who led a team out of Ryan’s Arlington, Virginia, office, was sentenced Dec. 1 and ordered to report to begin his prison term on Dec. 2. The judge recommended that Weaver serve his sentence at FCI Seagonville, a low-security federal prison in Seagoville, Texas, or another facility near Dallas in order to be close to his family.
U.S. District Court Judge John Gibney presided in the case. It was investigated by the FBI’s Richmond field office, as well as the IRS criminal investigation unit and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.
Dominick Gerace and Michael Dry handled the case from the U.S. Attorney’s Richmond office.
Weaver’s crimes occurred between October 2011 and December 2014 and consisted of manipulating data and falsifying invoices of two large unidentified corporate clients of Ryan. He caused the clients to inflate the amount of sales and use taxes they actually paid to the states. That resulted in larger refunds, larger fees for Ryan and thereby, larger bonuses for himself.
As a result, Virginia and Texas paid out inflated tax refunds of $19.01 million and $1.41 million, respectively.
Court records state that Ryan internally uncovered Weaver’s scheme, terminated him immediately and reported the incidents to the government voluntarily.
Weaver, who personally received more than $350,000 in bonuses as a result of his crimes, agreed to forfeit $250,000 that was already seized by the federal government.
On paper, Weaver was ordered to pay restitution of $20.42 million to the victims, though it’s unlikely he’ll ever personally repay that amount. Texas has already been repaid the $1.41 million by Ryan LLC, court records show. Virginia will likely have the ability to exercise some form of clawback provisions in attempt to get the money back from the two companies that received the refunds or from Ryan.
A resident of Alexandria, Weaver pleaded guilty to the charges in August in Richmond federal court. He faced up to 30 years in prison.