An Ash Grove woman pleaded guilty in federal court Monday to a wire fraud scheme in which she embezzled more than $362,000 from her Springfield employer and failed to pay nearly $1 million in business payroll taxes and personal income taxes.
Carrie Leigh Long, 52, pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and one count of failure to pay employment taxes.
According to a release, Long was employed by Executive Coach Builders Inc. to provide in-house accounting services to the company and to Executive Bus Builders Inc. The companies are headquartered in Springfield but do business worldwide with factories and sales offices in Missouri and California. The companies build luxury buses, coaches, and limousines.
Long was hired in April 2014, the release said.
With her guilty plea, Long admitted she stole at least $362,175 from the companies from February 2016 to September 2020. Long also admitted she failed to pay approximately $902,226 of employment taxes the companies owed to the IRS.
“Long used her position as an in-house accountant for the companies, and her access to the companies’ check stock, to regularly write checks against the companies’ bank accounts for unauthorized payments to herself,” the release said. “Long stole money from the companies by filling in unauthorized amounts on some pre-signed checks and making such checks payable to herself. Long also stole money from the companies by forging signatures on the companies’ checks, filling in unauthorized amounts on the checks, and making such checks payable to herself.”
Long failed to make regular payments to the IRS from April 2019 to March 2020 for $543,974 in federal income taxes and FICA taxes the companies withheld from employees’ paychecks, as well as $358,251 of the companies’ employer portion of payroll taxes, for a total owed to the IRS of $902,226.
The release said Long altered the companies' bank account statements and misrepresented that the payments had been made on her financial reports.
Long also admitted she did not claim the unauthorized payments as personal income on her individual federal income tax returns from 2016 through 2020, the release said. Long failed to pay $65,039 in federal income taxes on the $362,175 in embezzled income.
Under the terms of the plea agreement, Long must pay $1.3 million in restitution to the companies and to the IRS, as well as statutory interest on the amounts due and owing to the IRS.
Long faces up to 25 years in federal prison without parole. A sentencing hearing will be scheduled later.