A 34-year old Alexandria, Va., man has been ordered to pay $20,427,688.03 in restitution to victims in a case in which he submitted false sales tax refund claims to government agencies. Sean M. Weaver was sentenced to five years 11 months in prison after he pleaded guilty to mail fraud and money laundering.Weaver was a member of the transaction tax practice group in the Arlington office of Dallas, Texas-based Ryan, a tax services firm. Promoted to principal in December, Weaver managed a team of 10 to 15 employees and was responsible for submitting claims on behalf of the firm's clients to state taxing authorities. Ryan voluntarily reported Weaver's actions to authorities and cooperated with the investigation.
Weaver, who joined Ryan in 2005, admitted submitting and causing to be submitted bogus claims for sales and/or use tax refunds to the Virginia Department of Taxation and the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts on behalf of two of Ryan clients. Weaver manipulated client transactional data and falsified invoices and other records to inflate the amount of taxes actually paid by the clients. The actions occured between October 2011 and December 2014.
That scheme garnered Weaver $350,000 in bonuses. He agreed to forfeit $250,480.09 seized by the United States, the value of his account with a peer-to-peer lending company.