Weekend April 30 223

General Scott Bethel is off to prison.

Note to audit students, see this comment from the article

A large team of federal investigators looked into his case — from the IRS, General Services Administration Office of Inspector General, and the U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations.

Gen Bethel handily provided no less than four different internal auditors above with a paper trail of false documents which he submitted. It only required them to check with for examples the hotels to see if he in fact stayed there. Understand a one star general makes $200 K per year and surely has a nice pension. Notice he only got $139,687 for doing this. The mystery, like Scott London at KPMG, is why would he risk prison for no more money than this?  Authorities will surely seize his pension for the restitution. I am guessing he will have to regain the pension once he is out of prison. I wonder if he is still married?

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A former vice commander of an Air Force intelligence group was sentenced to a year in federal prison this week for wire fraud and filing a false tax return.

Retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Scott Allen Bethel, 59, of Spring Branch, got 12 months and a day for what prosecutors said was a scheme to falsify charitable deductions and business expenses from 2015 to 2019. Bethel, a 1985 Air Force Intelligence School honor graduate, allegedly cost the government $139,687.

He'll also face three years of supervision after his release from prison and be required to pay $154,827.50 in restitution.

“Today, the sentencing of retired U.S. Air Force Brigadier General Scott Allen Bethel serves as a reminder that those in positions of authority and trust are expected to uphold higher standards of integrity and accountability,” said Special Agent in Charge Ramsey E. Covington of IRS Criminal Investigation’s Houston field office.

“Bethel’s fraudulent actions, which included fabricating invoices, claiming false deductions, and attempting to enlist others in his criminal activities, not only tarnished his distinguished career but also undermine the very foundations of our tax and government systems," he said. 

Bethel was sentenced Wednesday in San Antonio federal court. He retired in 2012 as vice commander of the Air Force Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Agency at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland. The agency, which has been known by a number of names over the decades, is now called the 16th Air Force (Cyber).

The Justice Department said Bethel began working as a government contractor and advisor to the Air Force after retiring from the branch in 2012. He launched his own business, working with government staffing contracts and providing services to the Air Force.

Bethel submitted false hotel invoices for reimbursement from the federal government when he'd actually stayed with personal acquaintances while on business trips, the Justice Department said.

A large team of federal investigators looked into his case — from the IRS, General Services Administration Office of Inspector General, and the U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations.

Bethel had a sterling Air Force career. He commanded the 497th Intelligence Group at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia from December 2003 to August 2005, and led the 17th Training Wing at Goodfellow AFB in Texas from August 2005 to March 2007.

He went on to JBSA-Randolph before becoming director of Strategy, Integration and Doctrine, and deputy chief of staff for Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance at Air Force headquarters in the Pentagon from July 2010 to through the following December.

He was promoted that December to one-star general, serving as vice commander of the Air Force's ISR agency at Lackland. His duty location was Fort George Meade, Md.

Bethel was 1990 Officer of the Year with the Tactical Air Command and 9th Air Force Intelligence, a 1998 Federal Executive Gold Medal award winner and 2000 Senior Intelligence Officer of the Year for NATO. A veteran of Kosovo, he held the Kuwait Liberation Medal issued by the government there for his role in Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm, and also earned the Iraq Campaign Medal.

He also received the Air Force Combat Action Medal. It is given to airmen who participate in ground or air combat.  His was for ground action.

Word that Bethel had been ordered to prison shocked those who had worked with him over the years.

"Many of us have known Scott for decades," Pastor Tom Cacy, 77, a former airman who was Bethel's instructor in intelligence technical training during the 1980s and worked with him as late as 2014, wrote in a direct Facebook message. "I have always had the deepest respect for him both as a man and as a military/intelligence professional; however, after reading the charges against him for which he was found guilty in a court of civil law with the assistance of OSI, I do have to change my opinion of him from a legal and moral standpoint.

"He severely fell to temptations and it is not my place to  judge him for that. That is up to God and a court of law," added Cacy, who is retired from All Nations Korean Church.

sigc@express-news.net

THursday April 27 2023

Note to accounting students

The owners of the fence company missed the most obvious red flag. Why would a CPA be applying for a $20 an hour job?  CPAs do better than that. That red flag should have prompted them to contact  the Texas State Board of Public Accountancy to verify status, the Board wants to ferret out people who falsely claim certification. Only after the fact did they do that. and the judgement against a liar and a theif is not liable to be ccollected.

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A San Antonio bookkeeper accused of embezzling about $380,000 from her employer — and who allegedly continued adding to a long string of such thefts in her next job — has been hit with a $1.4 million court judgment.

Monica Marie Padilla, who’s accused of stealing from Superior Fence Co. of San Antonio LLC while she was employed there for nine months in 2021 and 2022, did not appear Monday at a state District Court trial to defend herself in the civil case.

Testimony during the 90-minute trial, however, revealed that after she left Superior Fence in March 2022, Padilla joined San Antonio’s J&R Tile, where she allegedly stole nearly $200,000. 

Reached by phone, J&R Tile owner Erin Albrecht declined to comment.

CHECKERED PAST: How a bookkeeper with a long criminal history keeps getting jobs — and landing in more trouble

The cases are the latest in a long criminal history involving the bookkeeper’s alleged thefts from her employers. So far, she has managed to avoid any significant jail time.

No criminal charges have been filed over the alleged embezzlement at Superior Fence. 

State District Judge Nadine Nieto awarded the company almost $380,000 in compensatory damages for its losses and $1 million in punitive damages — or about $240,000 more than it requested. In addition, the company was awarded pre- and post-judgment interest. The company’s lawyer, Steven R. Brown of Dripping Springs, also was awarded almost $56,000 in fees.

“This serves as a warning to people that would go out and commit these kind of frauds that you will be found out sooner or later … and if you are prosecuted either criminally or civilly, there may be severe consequences,” Brown said after the trial.

Padilla, 45, did not respond to an email, so it couldn’t be determined why she didn’t attend the trial. Superior Fence’s lawsuit also named her husband, Raphael Padilla, as a defendant.

'Like family'

Amber Gilbert, who owns Superior Fence with her husband Roger Gilbert, testified how Monica Padilla represented herself as a certified public accountant when she was hired in June 2021 for the $20-an-hour bookkeeper job. Gilbert later discovered Padilla never graduated from college, a prerequisite for becoming a CPA.

Eventually, Padilla was given authority to handle payroll, pay bills and reconcile the company’s books. She had access to company checking accounts, credit cards and even the couple’s personal banking and financial information, Superior Fence alleged in its lawsuit.

“I really saw her as a friend,” Amber Gilbert testified. “She worked very hard to gain our trust. She was very kind to my son. We all loved her. She was like family.”

Padilla suggested Superior Fence open an online account with Melio Payments Inc., which allows small businesses to transfer and receive payments.

SPENDING SPREE: Alamo Heights architecture firm alleges ex-bookkeeper embezzled almost $1.7 million

She set up the Melio account using her company email address but falsely represented that she was Superior Fence’s accountant, its lawsuit alleged. 

She then set up multiple personal ACH (Automated Clearing House) accounts and had payments sent to herself via the Melio account, Gilbert testified. Padilla allegedly stole $379,997.94.

“It has hurt us deeply,” Gilbert told the judge. “That $379,000 is two years of our profit. It’s an LLC so that’s the income that me and my husband make. So we’re basically working for free for the next two years.”

Superior Fence’s owner discovered Padilla’s alleged wrongdoing when she took time off during her last month of employment, Gilbert said. Vendors notified the company they were not being paid. She had receipts showing the vendors had been paid, but they told her the account numbers and merchant identification numbers weren’t theirs.

“At that point, we knew that we got got,” she said. Superior Fence sued Padilla and her husband on various fraud claims in January.

'Slow moving'

The judge asked if there was a criminal case pending against Padilla for the alleged thefts at Superior Fence. Brown answered there’s a criminal investigation underway but described it as “slow moving.

San Antonio Police “are so backed up,” he said. “They told us it would be nine months before they could even start looking at all the data that we’ve got.”

Court records show Padilla has been indicted three times in Bexar County — unrelated to her employment at Superior Fence — and charged multiple times in El Paso County, where she previously lived under the surnames Padilla and Puga.

In August 2021, she was indicted for fraudulent possession of a lawyer’s identifying information in Bexar County. She pleaded no contest to forgery, while charges in the two other cases were dismissed.

She received a 20-day jail sentence, and court records indicate she served 16 days.

At least two cases are pending against her in El Paso County. A trial had been set for last Friday in two theft cases from 2019, but a court representative said it was not held and will be rescheduled.  

She pleaded guilty to forgery and property theft in 2014 and was sentenced to two years in jail, but the sentence was suspended and she was placed on probation, which was later extended.

In addition to the damage awards in the Bexar County case, Nieto ordered a constructive trust. Essentially, that means any stolen money or assets purchased with that money have to be turned over to the trust. The judge also issued a permanent injunction that bars the defendants and some family members from spending or hiding the money.

As for the likelihood of the Gilberts ever seeing any of that, their lawyer said that’s hard to say.

“We will do what we can to collect the judgment,” Brown said.

A February court filing hints that it may be difficult. Attorney David McLane withdrew from representing the Padillas in February, citing, in part, the couple’s “inability to fund this litigation.”

Simultaneously with his motion to withdraw, McLane filed the Padilla’s answer to Superior Fence’s lawsuit. They denied the allegations in the complaint.

pdanner@express-news.net